A Lost Megaton Man Story from Before #1!

I drew this six-page Megaton Man story (scroll down for images) in 1983, before embarking on Megaton Man #1. It was something of a trial balloon for the character and an effort to reconcile all the myriad impulses and influences I was experiencing at the time.

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?

Genesis of an Android: Sandra Lights Up Down Broadway!

Two sequences from the current work in progress: the all-new Megaton Man #4 (three issues completed; publication details TBD): In the first, the Stella Android, Sandra, has been left alone in Trent Phloog's apartment, where she has been recharging by the window after a long period of dormancy. But her every move is streaming back to Edie Heidelberg in Megatropolis Office of Public Planning, and to Bad Guy!

In the second sequence, Sandra joins a Memorial Day parade heading down upper Broadway...

See previous posts for more previews of the all-new Megaton Man!

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!

Felicia Fondue: A Distended Discourse on Distortia™!

Here is a recent cartoon illustration I completed of Felicia, who appeared without origin or even a last name in Megaton Man #2 (Kitchen Sink Press, February 1985), and has never appeared since. She and Chuck Roast, The Human Meltdown are in the same boat, and after being featured on the cover, to boot! Felicia now has a last name: Fondue, although she's married to Chuck, and writes erotic mysteries under the nom de plume Felice Brulé. She, Chuck and their daughter Genevieve return from France to join the Doom Defiers in the All-New Megaton Man #3 (work in progress, see numerous other posts on this blog for previews). But she also has Megapowers that she's kept hidden--the powers of Distoria™!

Felicia Fondue, aka Felice Brule, in her hitherto secret origin as Distortia™ on the Megatropolis Quartet's Megapower Modifier, for The All-New Megaton Man #3. But unlike certain stretchy male characters, Felicia experiences her new abilities as a crisis of self-image, and she keeps it a shameful secret from Chuck, whom she fears will find her anatomical exaggerations aesthetically displeasing.

The cover to Megaton Man #2, recolored for the 2005 ibooks collection of Megaton Man. In the issue, Felicia was Yarn Man's old girl friend and Chuck's nude figure model. She adopts the old uniform of The See-Thru Girl and is invited to join the group, but is never shown to have any powers. The flashback origin above is retroactively inserted into that elliptical history! (It's called cheating; expect a lot of it in the new Megaton Man narrative!)

Chuck, Felicia, and daughter Genevieve return to Megatropolis to join The Doom Defiers in this pencil rough for The All-New Megaton Man #3 (forthcoming).

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.

Woo! Toting a Damaged Q-Mobile

Update: Scroll all the way to the bottom to see the flat-colored cover complete with logo.

Here's a portion of the cover I'm working on for the All-New Megaton Man #1 (a tale in the works for quite some time now), from a thumbnail sketch I made this past December:

Some of the tracing paper overlays used to develop the main figure group next to the original sketchbook page, and the final inked version (top center).

Here's the original thumbnail sketch, no bigger than 3 inches tall. Scanning and blowing up such scribbles allows me to preserve the original energy of the original inspiration while elaborating the concept into finished art.

Here's the final flat-colored cover art with logo. I will probably add some airbrushed highlights and gradations but this should give you a good idea of the basic composition.

The Statue of Liberty background in inked version on Clearprint Design Vellum, and the rough marker refinement on canary yellow tracing paper. Note the pronounced white out!

Half old school and half new-fangled, my process combines the best of both worlds (or centuries)! These separate elements are colored and combined in Photoshop.

Next: We parse the syntax of "Megatropolis" vs. "The Megatropolis"!

Email to The Earth Mother: Stella's Momentous Decision!

Updated 10/22/2014: Inks now posted.

These are pencils for a short sequence I created to insert into the new Megaton Man storyline I am working on. In it, Stella Starlight, once the air-headed ingenue The See-Thru Girl but now as The Earth Mother the default leader of the Megatropolis Quartet, receives an unexpected query from Megaton Man's former sidekick X-Ray Boy who is now default leader of The Devengers, to merge the two teams to form The Doom Defiers!

Yes, I realize I am posting all this stuff out of order (in part because it is not coming off my drawing board in proper sequence), but hopefully it will all be straightened out when published eventually as a graphic novel -- or approximately the third issue if we're thinking in twentieth-century terms, which I confess I still do.

Hunt #102 Crowquill and Rapidograph and India ink on Clearprint Design Vellum.

Blue and graphite pencil rough on bond layout, October 12, 2014.

Hunt #102 Crowquill and Rapidograph and India ink on Clearprint Design Vellum.

Blue and graphite pencil rough on bond layout, October 12, 2014.

(Here's a fun activity: click around this blog and try to read all these fragments in the right order! Collect 'em all!)

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.