More Lost Megaton Man Comics Art from the 1980s!

See Part One: The Megaton Man #2 That Might Have Been!

Here are a few more unearthed pages, some from the "lost second issue" of Megaton Man, others rejected from #6.

The Megaton Man #2 That Might Have Been!

In early 1984, Denis Kitchen of Kitchen Sink Press offered to publish Megaton Man #1 and even requested that I consider making it an ongoing series (all I had in mind hitherto was a one-shot). I jumped at the chance, and after the contract was signed, was soon floundering with too many ideas than I knew what to do with.

Luckily, Kitchen Sink was in the process of finding a different color publisher, so most of 1984 was spent with the first issue chronically delayed, which gave me all summer to stew in my juices. By August, which in Detroit was sweltering, I had something like 64 pages of comic book material in varying stages of completion. The problem was it was completely incoherent.

I remember going for a long walk on a bright, sunny day; it was cooler so it was probably closer to September. I walked from West Forest Avenue around the Wayne State University campus as far north as the New Center area (the Fisher and General Motors buildings) and back. By the time I got home, I had a completely new plot idea for Megaton Man #2: Megs joins the Megatropolis Quartet.

I drew (wrote, penciled, inked, lettered) the new second issue in about six weeks, as I recall. But I still had 64 pages of mess. Over the next several months, a carved out chunks of material (sometimes literally, cutting up and rearranging panels on new pages) for sequences that ended up in issues #3 and #4.

But there were still several pages, mostly unfinished, leftover. Those are reproduced here. For those familiar with the original ten-issue run of Megaton Man, much of the material will be familiar. The landing of the Partyers from Mars (inspired by The Day the Earth Stood Still), the pregnancy of the See-Thru Girl, the appearance of Uncle Farley (the Original Golden Age Megaton Man), Sgt. Sterankovich (who would later appear in #4), and many other characters, elements, scenes, and ideas appeared in altered form in later issues (particularly #9).

These pages in their unfinished form give a good idea of how I worked, and how my mind worked, at the time. The lettering is complete in most case, and the penciling is somewhat loose (I pencil much tighter these days, like I did as teenager before I started inking).

Note: A few of these pages may not be from the 64-page aborted #2; some may be later rejects generated during the production of the actual second issue and subsequent issues.

A page with panels cut out, perhaps intended for the second issue.

A rejected page reworked for the second issue of Megaton Man in which Yarn Man turns into a bikini.

A page probably rejected from the actual Megaton Man #2 (compare the way I ink Pammy's hair with the published splash page for #2). The bottom panels are cut out; where those missing panels went is anyone's guess, but probably to some of the pages in the published second issue.

This page is composed of cut-and-pasted panels that were rearranged. This sequence was redrawn for Megaton Man #6.

This page was also redrawn for Megaton Man #6.

In this unfinished page, a blond (or redheaded) girl reporter replaced Pamela Jointly in the newsroom of The Manhattan Project; she never appeared in the published series.

Sgt. Sterankovich appears (prior to his appearance in Megaton Man #4?), along with Orson Welles as President Harry Foster Lime, as the Partyers from Mars land in Central Park.

A dream sequence, part of the black-and-white sequence that appeared in Megaton Man #3, with heavy Zip-A-Tone. This page was reproduced in a special portfolio section in Return of Megaton Man #3 (Kitchen Sink Press, September 1988).

Another penciled page of the Partyers landing, with Uncle Farley watching from Skid Row.

Uncle Farley, the Original Golden Age Megaton Man, grabs his old garb and appears in Central Park (this sequence was later redrawn and reworked for Megaton Man #9).

Great lettering, but I'm not sure what I would have drawn except something like Klaatu's appearance from The Day the Earth Stood Still; at the time, I'm not sure I knew what the Partyers even looked like.

Pammy and Stella on the road; a sequence reworked for the actual second issue.

 

Continue to Part Two: More Lost Megaton Man Comics Art from the 1980s!

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All characters, character names, likenesses, words and pictures on this page are ™ and © Don Simpson 2021, all rights reserved.

Bad Guy and the Gamble Universe!

One of the more interesting character odysseys in the Megaverse has been that of Bart Gamble, the all-purpose villain known as Bad Guy! Quickly evolving into a combination of Marvel's Kingpin, a notorious New York real-estate developer, and a generic gangster, Bad Guy has bedeviled the Man of Molecules in fight scenes, land grabs, underworld schemes, android takeovers, comics publishing, and other evildoings! You name it -- Bad Guy is probably behind it.

Bad Guy first appeared without origin or secret identity in a two-page fight scene that turned into a dream sequence involving World War III in Megaton Man #3 (Kitchen Sink Press, April 1985).

The opening splash page for Megaton Man #3, wonderfully colored by Ray Fehrenbach.

Batholomew Gamble (named, finally) next appeared in Megaton Man #6 (October 1985), having “served nearly five years of [his] ten-lifetime sentence—for countless murders, robberies hijacks, and world takeover attempts as the Mega-criminal Bad Guy.” He is dressed as inmate #613123 at Megatropolis State Penitentiary.

Spread from Megaton Man #6.

Because he was a “model inmate,” he was forgiven “seven-eighths lifetimes” of his sentence. He recalls his last battle with Megaton Man in Radioactive Tales #326 as a “Fiasco.”

Gamble is described by the liberal bleeding-heart Green Mellow thus: “Bad Guy has had a very lucrative career in crime… he’s managed to sock a lot dough away in investments in all sorts of capitalist enterprises. He plans to tear down this entire neighborhood to build a munitions plant to handle big Pentagon contracts! Churches, homes, schools, businesses…a whole world swept away for the sake of corporate tax write-offs and weapons in outer space!” (page 4).

In the following issue (#7, December 1985), Bad Guy appears in a limousine with another elegant gal, apparently a real-estate developer and arms merchant, tied in with the nefarious Arms of Krupp. (At the time, a certain New York real-estate developer was beginning to make headlines--wonder whatever became of him?)

Spread from Megaton Man #7.

He appears only in civilian clothes until his next appearance (Megaton Man #9, April 1986), when he has been drafted to become the "Presidential Hero" Good Guy at the landing of the Partyers from Mars in Central Park.

Tier from Megaton Man #9.

After flattening Manhattan in a fight scene in Megaton Man #10 (June 1986), Bad Guy is raptured into heaven by Mars, God of War while Megaton Man loses his powers, becoming Civilian Trent Phloog. It is promised that a "parody" of a certain New York real-estate developer will rebuild Manhattan.

From Megaton Man #10.

When next they meet (Return of Megaton Man #2, August 1988), Megaton Man learns that he is under contract to Bad Guy and the Gamble Comics Corporation, and a bullpen of insufferable, self-indulgent, pretentious creators!

From Return of Megaton Man #2.

In Return of Megaton Man #3 (September 1988), a labor revolt ensues, led by a writer (who will much later in the Megaton Man narrative be identified as Bad Guy's son Paul Nabisco, creator of Gower Goose).

From Return of Megaton Man #3.

From Return of Megaton Man #3.

After another thrashing, Bad Guy again decides to retire from Megavillainy, but not before signing the Original Golden Age Megaton Man to a binding contract.

From Return of Megaton Man #3.

Bad Guy teams the revamped Original Golden Age Megaton Man with the Uncategorizable X+Thems in Megaton Man vs. the Uncategorizable X+Thems #1 (April 1989). When that team falls apart, Bad Guy introduces a juiced-up Yarn Man teamed up with the Y+Thems.

Bad Guy continued to bedevil Megaton Man (and Paul Nabisco and Gower Goose) in the Megaton Man Weekly Serial (from the late 1990s) and subsequent adventures as the leader of an army of android replicas, including that of the See-Thru Girl. He continues to play a role in current Megaton Man continuity that is being prepared for publication, including The Return to Megatropolis graphic novel. Who knows? With his background in New York real estate, he may even make a bid for the White House! See other posts on this blog for the further exploits of Bart Gamble!

Read the Secret Origin of Ms. Megaton Man!

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".

Present at a Past Origin: The Golden Age Megaton and Rex Rigid!

This vintage sketch of the Golden Age Megaton Man and Rex Rigid corresponds to a scene from The Return of Megaton Man #3 (Kitchen Sink, 1987). It was created for Mark Martin, who still owns it, and was scanned and a jpeg forwarded to me by Mark's personal curator and sales agent, Michael Beaver just today (June 23, 2014). The miracle of digital technology! Of course, since it was a convention sketch that I drew and never saw again, and prior to the age of convenient digital photography to maintain any record of it, I have absolutely no memory of having drawn it! (Could it be a forgery by aliens? I wouldn't be surprised! Frankly, it looks too good to be mine!)

Collection of Mark Martin.

In the scene, Rex Rigid (Liquid Man) revs up a tired, over-the-hill Farley Phloog (Trent's uncle), restoring him to his formerly robust glory as the Golden Age Megaton Man, and full of vim and vigor.

Cover, showing the Golden Age Megaton Man has Golden Panties, a little fact that I forgot when I created the drawing for Mark.

It's a pretty sweet piece, if I do say so myself, and there is a long and embarrassing story connected to why I probably lavished such effort on a convention sketch for a fellow artist, but I will save that for another time, since neither Mark nor I apparently can recall the exact circumstances surrounding its creation. Suffice it to say that it is sable brush and India ink on Bristol, colored with Dr. Martin's dyes, and was probably drawn at a major convention such as Dallas, San Diego, or Chicago.

Many more examples of Don Simpson art, from both the twentieth and twenty first centuries, can be viewed in my galleries at Comics Art Fans!