Allah Sulu's Icon Gallery

Allah Sulu's Icon Gallery

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After I created my journal, I wanted to create something relevant to the name "Allah Sulu". The first thought I had was to create an Allah Sulu flag. The original version combined the Saudi Arabian flag (to signify Allah) and the Star Trek insignia (to signify Sulu). Weeks later, I added the hiragana characters (pronounced arasuru) which were the source of the name "Allah Sulu". ("Arasuru" was a corruption of my first name, "Arthur", even though I originally kept my true identity a secret for some time. I created this journal as a practical joke to play on some friends; I was on their friends lists for several months without them realizing who I was.)

Next, I wanted to create an actual image of "Allah Sulu" (not an image of me, but of the character "Allah Sulu"). I created this icon using the South Park Studio. Since the name "Allah Sulu" (and the character I played on pantheon_dot_co) was a sort of hybrid demi-god, I chose attributes (the wings and Santa hat) which symbolized both the divine and the secular. I added a couple of other features (the stubble, and the smoking) to further obscure my identity; and the "HUH?" was something I added at the last minute (since I figured the shirt needed something on it, and that was the first thing that popped into my mind).

I started playing with icons to match different interests or types of posts. This one, "The Frankie Bunch" was a bunch of characters from The Rocky Horror Picture Show done up in The Brady Bunch style. I tried making their eyes move to look back/forth up/down at each other, but I didn't like the result and stuck with the static version. I also tried making another one in The Brady Bunch style, with Ranma ½ characters; but I didn't like it, never used it, and eventually deleted it.

"Captain Obvious" was an icon I made for cheap shots, obvious replies, and general snarky comments. It was modified from a larger image I'd found elsewhere. I later made a variation called "Captain Oblivious".

I combined the "God kills a kitten" meme with anime to create the "Every time you masturbate to anime, God kills Hello Kitty" icon. This one was pretty popular, and got me hooked on making and going through a lot of icons to amuse people. Not easy, when you could only keep three icons at a time (this was all that a "free" member of LiveJournal was allowed back then, and before I first became a paid member through a gift from isis_dot_com. I did a simple Google image search to get the anime images; I only know who some of them are.

This was the first "assimilation" I did, although I didn't start using that term until later. ("Assimilation" consists of taking an image, often another LJ user's icon, and adding Allah Sulu-esque details to it.) For her Christmas icon, thetaet had a picture of Russian president Vladimir Putin in a Santa hat. Just to tease her, I added my trademark wings, doobie, and "HUH?" to the icon.

Later, when thetaet posted pictures of herself in a Santa hat, I did the same to her. This got me started doing it other people's icons, just for fun (and general attention-whoring).

The next person to have an icon assimilated by me was lots42, who had an icon of Choo Choo Bear (a pink, almost boneless cat) from the webcomic Something*Positive.

This assimilation was based on one of cmndrcuddles' icons, an image of bacon with eyes from ilovebacon.com. Note that, for some time, I was using the same set of wings, Santa hat, and doobie that I'd originally gotten from the South Park Studio.

The first assimilation which I did for myself was a bottle of Absolut Vodka, since I had determined that the character of "Allah Sulu" was the "God of Vodka". I didn't like the way that it originally came out, however, so I redid it a month or two later. This is the final version; I no longer have the original. (There are a number of icons I've made, assimilations or not, which for one reason or another are not in this gallery.)

This is bouncepogo. This icon, like many of the other assimilations before and after, has a blank sky blue background. I generally found it easier to remove the background before adding the wings behind the person or thing being assimilated. I was also whipping most of these out pretty quickly, and getting used to the process. Over time, I got much better at it.

This was the first animated icon that I assimilated, which of course added to the difficulty. It was a disco ball that was used by both j_brew and purplefreak, both of whom immediately started using the assimilated version in place of the original. (Some people used the assimilations I made, others didn't.)

I assimilated an Edward Gorey icon used by tyler1968. The wings, hat, and doobie were drawn by hand rather than just pasted on from the South Park version, and I kept the original background instead of the sky blue that the other assimilations had all had to date.

This is an image of Henry Miller and Anais Nin, assimilated for rockettqween. I had to widen the original icon to the right and left to make room for the wings, which required some work for the background. This was the first assimilations that I actually did by request, rather than just by my own choice. Over time, I received many other icon requests.

This is Topato (from the webcomic WIGU), whom ducttapeavenger had been using as an icon. I returned to the sky blue background for this one since Topato is, in fact, flying through the sky.

Rather than assimilate an image of cargoddess herself, I assimilated a car (a 2002 Saturn VUE) and alternated that with an image of her. However, her original version of that icon had the word "dream" written over her picture; I changed it to "drink".

lm had posted a plethora of icons made from vintage-style models and nudes; I chose one of them and assimilated it. In addition to the usual Allah Sulu elements, I also gave the model a new background (after I'd removed the old one in order to paste her over the wings). The new background is the forest scene from the South Park Studio.

Somebody, I forget who, commented on the topless model above and asked me to create some eye candy for the females. I assimilated this image of ~~sexysteve~~ from one of his icons. Like the female icon above, I gave this one a new background from the South Park Studio. I also gave him a blinking text caption, because I imagined him sounding like Austin Powers.

This was an assimilation I made for my own use, and not inspired by anyone else's icon – I just thought it would be funny to assimilate the Mutant Enemy zombie from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel. This icon got a lot of compliments.

This is another icon I made for my own use, but it is not an assimilation (obviously). I created this variation on the "Intel Inside" logo to have a good icon for vodka-related posts, when I decided I didn't like the way the assimilated Absolut bottle had come out. I used this one until I redid the bottle, and this is one of the old icons which I occasionally bring back into service.

After I redid the Absolut bottle icon, I redid my original South Park Studio Allah Sulu icon. I made the colors sharper, squeezed in more wingspan, and animated the eyes. It was amusing that some people didn't notice the substitution immediately, then suddenly asked, "How long have the eyes been moving??" I think the eyes creeped some people out. It's all in the details.

This icon was inspired by the "Cell Block Tango" song from the movie Chicago. The image was scanned from the soundtrack booklet that came with the CD; I just cropped and shrunk it and added the words. A number of people asked if they could use this icon for their own journals. (I don't think I've ever turned down a request like that yet, but it's always nice to be asked. It's also nice to give credit, too; but obviously, I can't enforce that.

I made this icon for Valentine's Day, 2003. I had to cheat to make this one, since the ACME Heart Maker site only allows two rows of four characters each.

I assimilated a dancing banana icon for ~~mizz_nizz~~. At the time, this was my most popular assimilation; and had taken the most work to create (since I had to modify each and every frame, drawing the wings and hat by hand).

Sigmund, the owl, was done for aerindipity, for whom the owl is some sort of "owlternate lifestyle." She later created a journal just for Sigmund at sigmundtheowl. Note that Sigmund is in the same forest as the assimilated vintage model above.

By this time, many of my friends were using assimilated icons in their own journals – assimilations I'd done from their icons, images, or other requests. Naturally, this confused the other people who read those journals, but not mine, and didn't understand the significance (or lack thereof) of the assimilations. I saw someone, a friend of a friend, asking what was up with the Santa hat and doobie she was seeing on peoples' icons. Rather than answer, I took one of her icons – Giggles the bear, from the Happy Tree Friends – and assimilated that. That'll teach 'em. (The original assimilated icon was static; but flidais_dot_com challenged me to go back and make the Giggles icon fondle itself; so I did. This disturbed quite a few people.)

2mermaids asked me to assimilate a mermaid for her. I found the source image through a Google image search (a great way to find raw material). I animated the mermaid's "HUH?" on a whim – it reminded me of the cheesy flashing text I'd seen on other icons.

I use "FWOOSH!" icons for posts about things which anger or annoy me. I forget what originally inspired it, but it's symbolic of setting something on fire that pissed me off (in effigy on my computer screen). I found the animated flames with a Google image search, and just added the caption. I liked that the flames were blue since I like the color, and they look like the flames you get from burning alcohol…

I made a purple version of the animated flames for purplefreak, by fiddling with the palette. I used the purple version of the flames to set a Target store ablaze for cmndrcuddles, who used to work there. Apparently, they stole her red stapler or something…

Someone on cmndrcuddles' friends list saw the burning Target, and asked me to set her workplace (Wal-Mart) on fire. Given how many times I've seen various people on my friends list post rants about Wal-Mart, I'm surprised that no one else has ever asked to use this icon…

More assimilations followed; mostly requested by others, but some (welcome or not) inspired by my own evil imagination. trixijanet asked me to make an icon of her…

Another trixijanet. She had posted several pictures of herself in her journal before she requested an assimilation from me. I wasn't sure which picture to use, so I assimilated two of them.

I assimilated this Radiohead logo that karmarant was using as an icon. I really like the way this one came out, as I tried to make the Allah Sulu details match the rest of the image (rather than pasting in the South Park details).

cmndrcuddles, who appears to be quite the icon whore , asked me to make a Barbie doll icon, using a specific red-headed Barbie…

…so I made two. Note that I'm back to using the South Park wings, hats, and backgrounds…

I had thought for some time that ares_dot_com would be a perfect target for an assimilation; but I decided that it would be appropriate to wait until a war was on (Gulf War II in 2003) to do the War God. His original icon had some text across the arms and stomach, which took some effort to seamlessly remove before the assimilation could begin. This icon was not originally animated, but I felt that it was missing something… So, almost immediately after I uploaded and used the static version, I went back and added animation to the eyebrows and fingers.

The grim reaper_dot_com requested an assimilation of her icon, so I did one – you don't argue with death. I used the South Park Santa hat, but drew the other details by hand (to match the style of the icon). I originally used the same subdued palette for the details that I added, but a number of people protested that the Santa hat had to be red. I put a poll in my journal, and a slim majority made me replace the subdued hat with a bright red one.

Having already assimilated everything else in sight, I next attacked LJ's little <lj user> image, to customize my personal allah_sulu tag. I had already made italic versions of the User and Community images some time previously, so this seemed a logical (if silly) enough next step. (I have since made quite a few other replacement <lj user> tags, such as the double-sized one at the top of this screen, and the second assimilation to the left. To see all of them, and the program I use to generate the customized LJ tags, check out my as_massive_tool community.)

When thetaet put up a yellow ribbon to show support for American troops at war (including our mutual friend ducttapeavenger), I made an assimilated version for both of us to use. (Just before ducttapeavenger was deployed to Afghanistan, I told him who allah_sulu really was. He was surprised.)

This is one of a batch of about 16 icons I made for a customized mood theme for my journal. All of theme are variations on a "smiley face" allah_sulu assimilation details. Over time, I have continued to expand this theme by make more images for it.

I took a monochromatic icon that aerindipity was using (of her own face) and painted it all of the colors of the rainbow. I had lost my copy of this icon, and had to snag a copy of it from her journal when I made this gallery. I know there are other icons I've done, lost, and forgotten; and others that I simply don't include here for a variety of reasons (I have no idea how many South Park-style icons I've made of various people, for instance).

For tyler1968, I did something similar: I took his face, played with the colors, and animated the result. But rather than being a smooth transition, like aerindipity's above, his is a jarring clash of colors (and the caption is a reference to the Pokémon episode which once caused seizures in hundreds of Japanese children).

For several months, none of my icons included an actual picture of my own face – as I said earlier, my real identity was a closely-guarded secret. However, after I "unmasked" on April Fool's Day, 2003, and revealed the identity of the person "behind the curtain" who was playing allah_sulu, I created an icon that blended the South Park caricature of Allah Sulu with a photograph of me dressed similarly (the wings were cut out of cardboard, and the t-shirt was one my wife and I whipped up quickly). As expected, I shocked a number of people, who had known allah_sulu on LiveJournal but had no idea that he was me. Heh heh heh...

	After I created my journal, I wanted to create something relevant to the name "Allah Sulu". The first thought I had was to create an Allah Sulu flag. The original version combined the Saudi Arabian flag (to signify Allah) and the Star Trek insignia (to signify Sulu). Weeks later, I added the hiragana characters (pronounced arasuru) which were the source of the name "Allah Sulu". ("Arasuru" was a corruption of my first name, "Arthur", even though I originally kept my true identity a secret for some time. I created this journal as a practical joke to play on some friends; I was on their friends lists for several months without them realizing who I was.)
	Next, I wanted to create an actual image of "Allah Sulu" (not an image of me, but of the character "Allah Sulu"). I created this icon using the South Park Studio. Since the name "Allah Sulu" (and the character I played on pantheon_dot_co) was a sort of hybrid demi-god, I chose attributes (the wings and Santa hat) which symbolized both the divine and the secular. I added a couple of other features (the stubble, and the smoking) to further obscure my identity; and the "HUH?" was something I added at the last minute (since I figured the shirt needed something on it, and that was the first thing that popped into my mind).
	I started playing with icons to match different interests or types of posts. This one, "The Frankie Bunch" was a bunch of characters from The Rocky Horror Picture Show done up in The Brady Bunch style. I tried making their eyes move to look back/forth up/down at each other, but I didn't like the result and stuck with the static version. I also tried making another one in The Brady Bunch style, with Ranma ½ characters; but I didn't like it, never used it, and eventually deleted it.
	"Captain Obvious" was an icon I made for cheap shots, obvious replies, and general snarky comments. It was modified from a larger image I'd found elsewhere. I later made a variation called "Captain Oblivious".
	I combined the "God kills a kitten" meme with anime to create the "Every time you masturbate to anime, God kills Hello Kitty" icon. This one was pretty popular, and got me hooked on making and going through a lot of icons to amuse people. Not easy, when you could only keep three icons at a time (this was all that a "free" member of LiveJournal was allowed back then, and before I first became a paid member through a gift from isis_dot_com. I did a simple Google image search to get the anime images; I only know who some of them are.
	This was the first "assimilation" I did, although I didn't start using that term until later. ("Assimilation" consists of taking an image, often another LJ user's icon, and adding Allah Sulu-esque details to it.) For her Christmas icon, thetaet had a picture of Russian president Vladimir Putin in a Santa hat. Just to tease her, I added my trademark wings, doobie, and "HUH?" to the icon.
	Later, when thetaet posted pictures of herself in a Santa hat, I did the same to her. This got me started doing it other people's icons, just for fun (and general attention-whoring).
	The next person to have an icon assimilated by me was lots42, who had an icon of Choo Choo Bear (a pink, almost boneless cat) from the webcomic Something*Positive.
	This assimilation was based on one of cmndrcuddles' icons, an image of bacon with eyes from ilovebacon.com. Note that, for some time, I was using the same set of wings, Santa hat, and doobie that I'd originally gotten from the South Park Studio.
	The first assimilation which I did for myself was a bottle of Absolut Vodka, since I had determined that the character of "Allah Sulu" was the "God of Vodka". I didn't like the way that it originally came out, however, so I redid it a month or two later. This is the final version; I no longer have the original. (There are a number of icons I've made, assimilations or not, which for one reason or another are not in this gallery.)
	This is bouncepogo. This icon, like many of the other assimilations before and after, has a blank sky blue background. I generally found it easier to remove the background before adding the wings behind the person or thing being assimilated. I was also whipping most of these out pretty quickly, and getting used to the process. Over time, I got much better at it.
	This was the first animated icon that I assimilated, which of course added to the difficulty. It was a disco ball that was used by both j_brew and purplefreak, both of whom immediately started using the assimilated version in place of the original. (Some people used the assimilations I made, others didn't.)
	I assimilated an Edward Gorey icon used by tyler1968. The wings, hat, and doobie were drawn by hand rather than just pasted on from the South Park version, and I kept the original background instead of the sky blue that the other assimilations had all had to date.
	This is an image of Henry Miller and Anais Nin, assimilated for rockettqween. I had to widen the original icon to the right and left to make room for the wings, which required some work for the background. This was the first assimilations that I actually did by request, rather than just by my own choice. Over time, I received many other icon requests.
	This is Topato (from the webcomic WIGU), whom ducttapeavenger had been using as an icon. I returned to the sky blue background for this one since Topato is, in fact, flying through the sky.
	Rather than assimilate an image of cargoddess herself, I assimilated a car (a 2002 Saturn VUE) and alternated that with an image of her. However, her original version of that icon had the word "dream" written over her picture; I changed it to "drink".
	lm had posted a plethora of icons made from vintage-style models and nudes; I chose one of them and assimilated it. In addition to the usual Allah Sulu elements, I also gave the model a new background (after I'd removed the old one in order to paste her over the wings). The new background is the forest scene from the South Park Studio.
	Somebody, I forget who, commented on the topless model above and asked me to create some eye candy for the females. I assimilated this image of ~~sexysteve~~ from one of his icons. Like the female icon above, I gave this one a new background from the South Park Studio. I also gave him a blinking text caption, because I imagined him sounding like Austin Powers.
	This was an assimilation I made for my own use, and not inspired by anyone else's icon – I just thought it would be funny to assimilate the Mutant Enemy zombie from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel. This icon got a lot of compliments.
	This is another icon I made for my own use, but it is not an assimilation (obviously). I created this variation on the "Intel Inside" logo to have a good icon for vodka-related posts, when I decided I didn't like the way the assimilated Absolut bottle had come out. I used this one until I redid the bottle, and this is one of the old icons which I occasionally bring back into service.
	After I redid the Absolut bottle icon, I redid my original South Park Studio Allah Sulu icon. I made the colors sharper, squeezed in more wingspan, and animated the eyes. It was amusing that some people didn't notice the substitution immediately, then suddenly asked, "How long have the eyes been moving??" I think the eyes creeped some people out. It's all in the details.
	This icon was inspired by the "Cell Block Tango" song from the movie Chicago. The image was scanned from the soundtrack booklet that came with the CD; I just cropped and shrunk it and added the words. A number of people asked if they could use this icon for their own journals. (I don't think I've ever turned down a request like that yet, but it's always nice to be asked. It's also nice to give credit, too; but obviously, I can't enforce that.
	I made this icon for Valentine's Day, 2003. I had to cheat to make this one, since the ACME Heart Maker site only allows two rows of four characters each.
	I assimilated a dancing banana icon for ~~mizz_nizz~~. At the time, this was my most popular assimilation; and had taken the most work to create (since I had to modify each and every frame, drawing the wings and hat by hand).
	Sigmund, the owl, was done for aerindipity, for whom the owl is some sort of "owlternate lifestyle." She later created a journal just for Sigmund at sigmundtheowl. Note that Sigmund is in the same forest as the assimilated vintage model above.
	By this time, many of my friends were using assimilated icons in their own journals – assimilations I'd done from their icons, images, or other requests. Naturally, this confused the other people who read those journals, but not mine, and didn't understand the significance (or lack thereof) of the assimilations. I saw someone, a friend of a friend, asking what was up with the Santa hat and doobie she was seeing on peoples' icons. Rather than answer, I took one of her icons – Giggles the bear, from the Happy Tree Friends – and assimilated that. That'll teach 'em. (The original assimilated icon was static; but flidais_dot_com challenged me to go back and make the Giggles icon fondle itself; so I did. This disturbed quite a few people.)
	2mermaids asked me to assimilate a mermaid for her. I found the source image through a Google image search (a great way to find raw material). I animated the mermaid's "HUH?" on a whim – it reminded me of the cheesy flashing text I'd seen on other icons.
	I use "FWOOSH!" icons for posts about things which anger or annoy me. I forget what originally inspired it, but it's symbolic of setting something on fire that pissed me off (in effigy on my computer screen). I found the animated flames with a Google image search, and just added the caption. I liked that the flames were blue since I like the color, and they look like the flames you get from burning alcohol…
	I made a purple version of the animated flames for purplefreak, by fiddling with the palette. I used the purple version of the flames to set a Target store ablaze for cmndrcuddles, who used to work there. Apparently, they stole her red stapler or something…
	Someone on cmndrcuddles' friends list saw the burning Target, and asked me to set her workplace (Wal-Mart) on fire. Given how many times I've seen various people on my friends list post rants about Wal-Mart, I'm surprised that no one else has ever asked to use this icon…
	More assimilations followed; mostly requested by others, but some (welcome or not) inspired by my own evil imagination. trixijanet asked me to make an icon of her…
	Another trixijanet. She had posted several pictures of herself in her journal before she requested an assimilation from me. I wasn't sure which picture to use, so I assimilated two of them.
	I assimilated this Radiohead logo that karmarant was using as an icon. I really like the way this one came out, as I tried to make the Allah Sulu details match the rest of the image (rather than pasting in the South Park details).
	cmndrcuddles, who appears to be quite the icon whore , asked me to make a Barbie doll icon, using a specific red-headed Barbie…
	…so I made two. Note that I'm back to using the South Park wings, hats, and backgrounds…
	I had thought for some time that ares_dot_com would be a perfect target for an assimilation; but I decided that it would be appropriate to wait until a war was on (Gulf War II in 2003) to do the War God. His original icon had some text across the arms and stomach, which took some effort to seamlessly remove before the assimilation could begin. This icon was not originally animated, but I felt that it was missing something… So, almost immediately after I uploaded and used the static version, I went back and added animation to the eyebrows and fingers.
	The grim reaper_dot_com requested an assimilation of her icon, so I did one – you don't argue with death. I used the South Park Santa hat, but drew the other details by hand (to match the style of the icon). I originally used the same subdued palette for the details that I added, but a number of people protested that the Santa hat had to be red. I put a poll in my journal, and a slim majority made me replace the subdued hat with a bright red one.
	Having already assimilated everything else in sight, I next attacked LJ's little <lj user> image, to customize my personal allah_sulu tag. I had already made italic versions of the User and Community images some time previously, so this seemed a logical (if silly) enough next step. (I have since made quite a few other replacement <lj user> tags, such as the double-sized one at the top of this screen, and the second assimilation to the left. To see all of them, and the program I use to generate the customized LJ tags, check out my as_massive_tool community.)
	When thetaet put up a yellow ribbon to show support for American troops at war (including our mutual friend ducttapeavenger), I made an assimilated version for both of us to use. (Just before ducttapeavenger was deployed to Afghanistan, I told him who allah_sulu really was. He was surprised.)
	This is one of a batch of about 16 icons I made for a customized mood theme for my journal. All of theme are variations on a "smiley face" allah_sulu assimilation details. Over time, I have continued to expand this theme by make more images for it.
	I took a monochromatic icon that aerindipity was using (of her own face) and painted it all of the colors of the rainbow. I had lost my copy of this icon, and had to snag a copy of it from her journal when I made this gallery. I know there are other icons I've done, lost, and forgotten; and others that I simply don't include here for a variety of reasons (I have no idea how many South Park-style icons I've made of various people, for instance).
	For tyler1968, I did something similar: I took his face, played with the colors, and animated the result. But rather than being a smooth transition, like aerindipity's above, his is a jarring clash of colors (and the caption is a reference to the Pokémon episode which once caused seizures in hundreds of Japanese children).
	For several months, none of my icons included an actual picture of my own face – as I said earlier, my real identity was a closely-guarded secret. However, after I "unmasked" on April Fool's Day, 2003, and revealed the identity of the person "behind the curtain" who was playing allah_sulu, I created an icon that blended the South Park caricature of Allah Sulu with a photograph of me dressed similarly (the wings were cut out of cardboard, and the t-shirt was one my wife and I whipped up quickly). As expected, I shocked a number of people, who had known allah_sulu on LiveJournal but had no idea that he was me. Heh heh heh...