Random Chromology II: New Megaton Man GN Coloring Continues!

More pages from the all-new graphic novel Megaton Man: Return to Megatropolis, as they roll off the ol' digital drawing board!

The group in Ann Arbor decides to return to Megatropolis in the wake of unthinkable terrorist attacks!

Our heroes run into problems over New York City!

Megaton Man draws fire away from the Q-Mobile!

Megaton Man, Yarn Man, and X-Ray Boy survey Ground Zero with a wobbly Colonel Turtle!

Even the MQ HQ is fraught with security issues!

Random Chromology: New Megaton Man Coloring!

New colored pages from the graphic novel in progress, Megaton Man: Return to Megatropolis!

Megaton Man and extended family, long exiled to the Midwest, return to New York City in the wake of unthinkable attacks.

Original inked line art for the bottom tier.

Screen shot of Photoshop coloring in progress. Note that smoke and background are still black; they will be knocked to a brown and purple-grey to give the illusion of receding into the distance.

Flying over Ground Zero, the group ponders what has taken place.

Much later, back at the old Megatropolis Quartet headquarters, terror alert systems get a bit out of control!

Megaton Man needs some to get away and think...

...and naturally turns to Lady Liberty!

Red Alert: Coloring the Return to Megatropolis Graphic Novel

Preview of the Megaton Man: Return to Megatropolis graphic novel, conceived as five "issues" but planning to release it as a single 160-page book, I have been working on issues #4 and #5 in recent blog posts.

This particular page is from earlier in the book, #2 which I began around 2005, but put aside when industry insiders reacted badly to the 9/11 theme, and didn't ink until 2014. (What did I do in the intervening decade? Long story.)

This page reflects the coloring style I am considering for the graphic novel: flat, bold, with some subtle modulations or "glazing." It recalls the Atlas (Marvel) monster comics (Fing Fang Foom, et al), which was in fact one of the models for the coloring of the early Megaton Man comics at Kitchen Sink Press (colored by Pete and Bill Poplaski and Ray Fehrenbach). While those overlay-cut comics were severely limited in color choices, Photoshop allows for an unlimited range of colors, although I do want to keep them flat. I call it "reinvented retro," and in any case would like to avoid the overly modeled look of airbrushed Photoshop that smothers so much drawing in comics these days. Comments?

Doomsday Drive: Meet Me in Bayonne!

Rough pencil layouts for the opening sequence to the All-New Megaton Man #4 (publication TBD). Megaton Man returns the trailer he used to move back into his old Megatropolis apartment, in which  he found new roommate and quasi-sidekick Connie Carlyle subletting. The pair grab a convenient cab ride from Alhambra Rasputin, who has been uploading terrorist videos -- but is he responsible for the attacks that brought the Man of Molecules back to New York, or is he just some homegrown nut? And why are the Doom Defiers playing beach volleyball in Bayonne NJ with terror alert levels through the roof?! The answers may lie at the end of Doomsday Drive...

Our lovely and talented model, a die-cast cab I picked up in NYC in 2000, with thumbs for this sequence in the background.

The sequence continues is the previous post.

War on Anti-Terror: The MQHQ Springs Into Action!

Megaton Man and the Reconstituted Quartet check out the new security measures in the MQ HQ (Megatropolis Quartet Headquarters) in my Post 9/11 storyline I've been working on for what seems like forever. This scene, newly colored in Summer 2015, is from the second of three complete issues I have in the can. Read previous posts on this blog about the new storyline (print publishing plans TBD).

Kozmik Kat, Megaton Mouse, Time Turntable: Alliterations Abound in All-New Megaton Man #2!

Department of a Zillion Loose Ends: I have recently completed the story, art, and lettering for what I'm calling the All-New Megaton Man #1-3 (some 96 pages of all-new material), in which the core cast returns to Megatropolis following a devastating terrorist attack that leaves Our Fair City depleted of Megaheroes (the Man of Molecules has more or less been in self-imposed exile in the Midwest for, oh, the last three decades!). This scene is from the second issue, as the cast becomes reacquainted with the old headquarters of the long-disbanded Megatropolis Quartet (the MQ HQ, for short).

Kozmik Kat is the longtime foil of Yarn Man, but beyond his snagging claws, I've never had an awful lot for this sidekick of a sidekick to do. As I explore the Megaton Man narrative anew, I'm finding all sorts of loose plot threads and undeveloped ideas I want to explore. In this, KK switches on my all-purpose plot device, the Time Turntable, bringing back another loose thread I left dangling around Megaton Man #2 (February 1984). The Sole Surviving Megaton Mouse will be further developed in future issues I already have scripted (and there are already clues and previews in previous blog posts, and on the Ms. Megaton Man blog as well)! Stay tuned for more previews as I develop this material, and as plans for print TBD in 2016-2017 come into focus!

Flashback: The origin of Kozmik Kat and the Megaton Mice in Megaton Man #2 (Kitchen Sink Press, February 1985):

Sneak Peak: More Kozmik Kat and Megaton Mice antics previews!

The Dirt on Slum Clearance: Trent Gets the Scoop!

Trent Phloog revisits his old stomping grounds, the newspaper offices of The Manhattan Project, to find old flame Pamela Jointly at the editing helm, and his tenuous background as an investigative reporter put to the test. At issue is a redevelopment plan for Ground Zero that will transform Megatropolis into an unlivable city, something Connie Carlyle, entering the narrative here for the first time, protests! Panels from my work in progress (for more previews, see previous postings on this blog!).

Pammy orders Trent to the front lines of urban warfare.

(Little does Megaton Man realize that the protester is subletting his bachelor pad!)

For more on public planner Edie Heidelberg (who also makes her debut above), click here.

X-Ray Boy's Defunct Debut: The Demise of the Devengers!

X-Ray Boy has sealed the fate of the Dissolute Devengers in these tiers from The All-New Megaton Man #3 (a work in progress). See earlier posts for rough pencils and more previews from this forthcoming graphic novel project!

Devengers to Doom Defiers: Inking X-Ray Boy and Stella Android

Inking the remaining eight pages of The All-New Megaton Man #3. No release date yet, but stay tuned. (See previous posts on this blog for pencils and previews of art from issues #1-3.)

Dusk for The Devengers but Dawn for the Doom Defiers: X-Ray Boy and Angela fret over how Colonel Turtle is taking the demise of the New Jersey Megahero team.

The Devengers signage comes down as The Doom Defiers sign goes up; Megaton Man is not welcome on either iteration of the team, and repairs to his abode with the dormant See-Thru Girl Android!

The original pencil roughs, below.

A Day in the Life: Scenes From Work in Progress!

Scenes from issues #2 and #3 of new Megaton Man material I am working on! All in a day's work. (Actually, the scenes take place months apart--and they are out of order--but it would not be remarkable if they were to occur on the same day in the life of The Man of Molecules!) Which is your favorite? Please comment below.

Not Megaton Man, Just Friends: Trent's New Roommate in Color!

Connie Carlyle, Megaton Man's new roommate, is introduced in what I'm currently calling The All-New Megaton Man #3. My plan is to have several issues in the can, to be released either singly or as a graphic novel (to be determined) in 2016 or 2017. Below are some colored selections; to read the entire sequence in line art, click here. More previews of the work in progress than you can shake a stick at throughout this blog!

Moving Back to Megatropolis! Secrets of the Phloog Pad

Megaton Man moves back into his old apartment in Megatropolis, but doesn't know where to stash the inert Stella Android he salvaged from a bout with Bad Guy back at the turn of the millennium. A scene from the third issue of his new (or at least unpublished) adventures that I am currently inking...

(Yes, I realize I am posting pages out of reading order -- and poorly lit to boot -- but whoever said a free sneak peak had to be coherent?! Excelsior!)

Below: The art above, partially inked:

First Inks of Spring! A New New Megaton Man #3 Page

Here is a freshly-inked random page from The New Megaton Man #3 featuring Bad Guy (Bart Gamble), now an evil real estate developer, and Edie Heidelberg, his accomplice in the Office of Public Planning (I may as well get some use out of my PhD in art and architectural history!). The Stella Android is one of a whole slew of leftover storylines dating back to the primordial 80s (in this case, Image Comics' Megaton Man: Bombshell #1 from circa 2000). For a preview of The New Megaton Man #1 and #2, start reading online right here.