Unfinished Bidniz: What Ever Happened To WOTI #4?

Update: Below is art from 2011 and 2012. See the Don Simpson Freelance blog for several postings on the new art I am doing for this issue in the summer and fall of 2014!

War of the Independents is an ambitious six-issue crossover project involving nearly every independent comic book creation you can think of. Three issues have come out thus far. I was invited to do a cameo appearance of Megaton Man for the fourth (all-humor) issue a couple of years ago, followed by a back cover (below). Now, guru Dave Ryan is planning to run off to the Bahamas (or somewhere) and get married, so it looks like I may end up drawing the rest of the issue! I've been provided with a plot and script for the first five pages (and if the rest doesn't show up soon, I may just have Megaton Man and The Tick beat the crap outta each other for 15 pages)! Publication details will be announced later, after artwork for the book has been completed -- an innovative practice completely unheard of hitherto in the comic book industry! Stay tuned...

Milk and Cheese, Zippy the Pinhead, Flaming Carrot, Cerebus the Aardvark, Bone, Too Much Coffee Man, Yarn Man and Megaton Man frolic in War of the Independents #4. Characters are ™ and  © their respective creators.

Felix the Cat and Mr. Spook join the fray. Characters are ™ and  © their respective creators.

Note: If you open the graphics in a new tab (rather than click on them), you can zoom in and see some nice high resolution!

(New sketches and rough layouts here.)

Megastang Man: Ed "Big Dandy" Don Goes Hotrod!

Here is a recent commission idea that got completely out of control: a request for a Megaton Man pin-up in the manner of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth (Ed being my middle name anyway). Takes me back to second grade when all boys draw cars, whether they had any interest in drawing or were into cars or not (I drew, but despite my dad being an auto mechanic, had no interest in cars per se). It doesn't take a practiced eye to note that all the chrome and engine parts are faked (although the basic underlying phallic symbolism couldn't be more obvious)!

If you would like a Dandy Don sketch, drawing, pin-up, whatchamacallit, please peruse the handy Dandy Don Commission Price List.

Original blue and graphite pencil layout on bond. "Schwing," indeed, as The Man of Molecules goes bonkers over the curvaceous See-Thru Girl.

Pen (Hunt #102 Crowquill) and India ink on Clearprint Design Vellum, approximately 11" x 14".

The Fabulous Doom Defiers Beach House!

Here's a sneak peak at what I'm working on for The Next Megaton Man #4 (although I may call it Doom Defiers #1): the first rendering of the Doom Defiers' beach house in Bayonne, New Jersey. The Doom Defiers Warehouse (formerly the Devengers Mansion) is in the background. The Megatropolis Quartet and Devengers have joined forces, and the new team will have a clear view across the Hudson to the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan.

While the Doom Defiers get started on their holiday weekend, let me wish you a great Labor Day weekend in whatever universe you inhabit. I hope it is a safe and happy one, and best wishes for the fall of 2014!

Ink on Clearprint 1000HP Design Vellum, Thursday, August 28, 2014.

Original pencil rough layout, complete Tuesday, August 26, 2014.

My hope is to issue this material (The New MM #1-4; see previous posts on the blog for more previews) in print, either as individual issues or a complete graphic novel package.

Original colored greyline for the cover to Bizarre Heroes #3 (Fiasco Comics Inc., July 1994), featuring Stella Starlight (formerly the See-Thru Girl) in her new incarnation as the Earth Mother. Later, her costume would change from blue to green.

E is for Earth Mother: The Half-Round Table Transformed!

Never has a furniture alteration had greater implications for the fate of the Fiasco Megaverse! A preview of a work in progress that I am tentatively calling The New Megaton Man #4 (or should that be Doom Defiers #1?), first pencil roughs then inked versions.

See previous posts for more.

The Bronx Bombers: The Yankee Street Gang!

No sooner do the Doom Defiers declare themselves a group (see previous posts) than Yarn Man's old nemeses show up! Sneak preview pencils of The New Megaton Man #3 (with inks added as they are completed).

Half-Life of a Half-Brother: The Human Meltdown Returns!

More pencil roughs from the New Megaton Man #3, a work in progress. In this sequence, a new megahero team is formed of the remnants of the Megatropolis Quartet, as old acquaintances arrive to join the Doom Defiers. See previous posts for more.

(Note: The Human Meltdown and Felicia were last seen leaving Megatropolis for Europe in Megaton Man #2,  February 1985. Both were featured on the cover.)

Cover  courtesy of Grand Comics Database http://www.comics.org/issue/39683/

Saturday Morning at the Ol' Drawing Board: Layouts for the New MM #3

A mega-sneak preview of The Next Megaton Man #3, layouts for which cover the ol' Don Simpson drawing board this weekend. (See previous posts for more work in progress.)

Spoiler Alert: In this sequence, The Human Meltdown and Felicia (last seen in Megaton Man #2, February 1985) return from France with their young daughter just as the remnants of The Megatropolis Quartet and The Devengers are forming a new megahero team in Bayonne, New Jersey! Stay tuned for further developments...

Rough layouts in light blue Col-Erase and graphite pencil on bond layout paper of pages 14 and 15 of the momentous issue.

The tools of the trade adorning the erstwhile Fiasco Taboret. (The red cup on the right is from a Birdseye Thick 'N' Frosty shake from the early 1970s, and has served as my water container for all of my comic books -- Antiquarian Don!)