Reproduced here is a two-page letter dated February 13, 1987 from Dave Schreiner (1946-2003), offering his assessment of the Megaton Man cast of characters. Dave was the editor at Kitchen Sink Press from 1983 to 1993, and was particularly crucial as a sounding board for me on Border Worlds (1985-1987); I've often said the recaps he wrote of the previous issues where more coherent than my comics. In this document, Dave is responding to a plot outline I sent to him (it may be this one or an even briefer synopsis of Megaton Man #11 and other comic book ideas I was cooking up at the time).
What is significant is that, after the initial ten-issue run of Megaton Man (December 1984 to June 1986), and in the midst of my run on Border Worlds as a black-and-white, mature readers science fiction saga, I had somehow found my second wind on Megaton Man, reinventing the strip from the ground up and putting it on a more solid footing I felt could have produced years more of comics. The civilian secret identities of the characters -- their normal personas, not the their megahero identities -- would be the focus; set in Ann Arbor, a midwestern college town, Trent (a de-powered Megaton Man), Stella (the former See-Thru Girl), Pammy (now a college instructor, no longer Megaton Man's newspaper critic), and Clarissa (who would eventually become Ms. Megaton Man) all live in a communal off-campus house reminiscent of The Big Chill or Walden's Pond of Doonesbury.
In this new scenario, Yarn Man and other megahero friends from Megatropolis would drop by, along with Secret Agent Preston Percy, the Partyers from Mars, and other menaces. Inevitably, Trent Phloog would be compelled from time to time to revert to his over-muscled Megaton Man physique, either by Megasoldier Syrup injection or other means, and misadventure would ensue. Basically, the megahero world would invade the "normal" world -- normal being a counter-cultural milieu of used book stores, funky record shops, aging hippies, tenured academics (Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? filmed by Mike Nichols and Foolbert Sturgeon's "Jesus Goes to a Faculty Party" serving as key inspirations).
I forgot to mention perhaps the most crucial element of all: Stella Starlight, who has returned to college to finish her degree, is about to give birth to Trent's child -- with no plans of marriage. The term "parenting partner" did not exist yet; the concept of an unmarried couple conceiving and raising a child was so far ahead of its time. Let alone for the title character of an ongoing comic book series!
I think if I had been allowed to fully developed these storylines at the time, Megaton Man #11 and subsequent issues could have been an almost perfectly blend of an underground comix vibe and classic Silver Age superheroes. Who knows, it might have become the Great American Comic Strip, rivaling the great humorous family dramas of the newspaper strips. At the very least, I considered this a more sustainable foundation for the Megaton Man series, moving away from the pure Not Brand Echh! parody that had exhausted itself long before I reached issue #10. I liken it to Dave Sim's Cerebus, which had started out as a Barry Smith Conan parody, evolving into the more arch satire of High Society.
While several responses from Denis over the course of 1987 in my files document the fact that he had accepted Megaton Man #11 for publication, he always hinted at his desire to slap a new #1 on the cover. Needless to say, the market was in turmoil, and the black-and-white comics bust was dragging down sales of Border Worlds and lots of other titles. As I continued work on Border Worlds over the summer, I fleshed out my ideas for #11; originally we discussed a single, 64-page comic in black and white; by the fall, I had in mind three or four regular issues, #11 through #14. But by the fall, all Denis seemed to care about was a new #1.
The bitter clash that took place around Thanksgiving of 1987 resulted in The Return of Megaton Man #1-#3, but also damaged my relationship with Kitchen Sink Press beyond repair. Although I bounced back, my admiration for Denis Kitchen was destroyed and simply never recovered. My fondness for Megaton Man itself was completely ruined for many year thereafter; it took years of effort to fully detoxify the series and the character.
This document is from a earlier, happier, and more optimistic moment. Editor Dave -- offering almost the diametrically opposite advice as the publisher -- is essentially praising the character-driven direction of my new story arc and foreseeing great things to come. He praises the central character, Megaton Man, as loveable and virtuous; he's a bit harsher concerning the supporting cast, whom he sees mainly as foils to the main character. He writes,
I’m glad you’re thinking seriously about bringing him back. [...] I think it’s about time you stopped viewing the character as merely your vehicle to boff on the comics biz, and you should also stop viewing him as simply the comic relief with his “silly fight scenes.”
Another remark that sticks out in my mind, reading it at the end of 2023, is "specific parodies of the biz" which Dave views as "obligatory, I suppose, but kind of a drag."
Compare this advice with a two-page letter from Denis Kitchen (on official Kitchen Sink Press letterhead), in which he "suggests" repeating the Not Brand Echh? formula, foregrounding a Punisher movie parody (or whatever fad or event the mainstream superhero industry spits out), and essentially pushing the cast and narrative of Megaton Man into the background -- the complete opposite of Dave Schreiner's advice.
Taken together with the communication from Denis that had preceded it a year before (full text here), this was a tacit rejection of the character-driven narrative direction I was taking and that editor Dave Schreiner had endorsed. Denis's "suggestions" came off more as an edict, setting forth the conditions under which Kitchen Sink Press would consider publishing any more Megaton Man comics at all: If it didn't have a #1 and a direct tie-in to an industry trend, I could forget it. (As for the college-town character interactions, those should be pushed into the background or excised altogether.)
Suffice it to say I never parodied the memorably Dolph Lundren Punisher movie. I did come up with The Original Golden Age Megaton Man #1 (which appeared as Megaton Man Meets the Uncategorizable X+Thems #1), Yarn Man #1, and Pteranoman #1 -- the final three Megaton Man comics to appear from Kitchen Sink Press. Although I tried to thread the needle between Dave and Denis's advice, they probably satisfied neither one, although they remain three of my favorite comics among all my output (and fans seem to like them, too).
Those, along with Bizarre Heroes #1 and Border Worlds: Marooned #1 were the last five comics I produced for Kitchen Sink Press after Return of Megaton Man #3 -- only five comics in the period of 1988 to late 1990, about three full years. That's less than a third of my output when I was doing Megaton Man #1-#10 and Border Worlds #1-#7, evidence of the toll the clash over #11 had taken on my productivity and enthusiasm.
Denis reaffirmed his views in a recent email (October 24, 2023):
In retrospect, it might have been better to ditch the convoluted ongoing MM plot lines and instead put out three or four annual MM “specials” where you focused on self-contained issues/themes and/or parodied a different superhero or company each time. I think each special would have had stronger numbers and perhaps been easier to write within the confines of single issues, but of course it’s all speculation.At least Denis is consistent, if forgetful; his view here are neither retrospective or speculative. We tried it his way in the late 1980s and it didn't work. The #1 regime never produced sustainable sales; it only confused longtime fans of the series and no doubt insulted their intelligence. By "convoluted storylines," I presume he means the very character-driven material I put forward in the plot for Megaton Man #11 that Dave had praised.
I don't know if Dave copied Denis on his February 13, 1987 letter to me, or if Denis even consulted Dave concerning his views on the narrative direction of Megaton Man. It doesn't seem that Dave's praise of a character-driven direction had much weight with Denis, who among other things seemed more preoccupied with starting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and increasingly with property licensing more than with actual comics publishing.
My understanding was that, while a minority shareholder in the company, and responsible for nearly all the editorial responsibilities and creative liasion with Will Eisner and others, Dave as outranked by Denis on business decisions; presumably, destroying any enthusiasm I had for a planned resumption of Megaton Man with issue #11 was a business decision.
My retrospective view is that Megaton Man #11 and subsequent issues could have easily led to an almost regular resumption of the series -- perhaps quarterly if not bi-monthly, as it had began. Continuing the numbering was important to me, as I stated at the time:
If I were in your position, I’d be pushing for an issue [of Megaton Man] as often as possible, the sooner to get to the next issue. Instead, this #1 “Special/Annual” jazz has only served to slow things up, making the entire proposition [of more Megaton Man] distasteful to me. If I have to go through this shit every time I feel like doing more Megaton Man, I can tell you I’ll think more than twice about it.[i]
The Kitchen Sink Megaton Man comics (series, mini-series, and one-shots) will be collected in mid-2024 as THE COMPLETE MEGATON MAN UNIVERSE, Volume I; the post-Kitchen Sink Bizarre Heroes and Megaton Man Weekly Serial will be collected in THE COMPLETE MEGATON MAN UNIVERSE, Volume II, likely in late 2024 or 2025, from Fantagraphics Underground.
Attentive readers will notice mention of a couple other ideas at the end of Dave's letter, including The Affiliation, [Project] Mainstream (which became KSP Bizarre Heroes #1, more or less) and Suicide Kings (an idea from junior high school. I'm not sure what The Affiliation was, precisely, although the way Dave seems to discuss them all as interrelated I think it's safe to say they all ended up in the Fiasco Comics series Don Simpson's Bizarre Heroes. At the time, I was thinking of them as segregated from Megaton Man, although that narrative ended up taking over the Fiasco series.
ReplyDeleteThe Kitchen Sink Megaton Man comics (series, mini-series, and one-shots) will be collected in mid-2024 as THE COMPLETE MEGATON MAN UNIVERSE, Volume I; the post-Kitchen Sink Bizarre Heroes and Megaton Man Weekly Serial will be collected in THE COMPLETE MEGATON MAN UNIVERSE, Volume II, likely in late 2024 or 2025, from Fantagraphics Underground.