More Thumbnails and Roughs!
The New Sequence I'm Laying Out for Megaton Man and the Doom Defiers
Thumbs and Roughs
Above is a more complete look at the sequence I am working on, from what I’m calling Megaton Man and the Doom Defiers. Pages 1-60 are posted in a Facebook gallery, and these are pages 61-70. Page 61 is penciled and partially inked on Strathmore 400 heavyweight drawing paper, 12” x 17” (the maximum size of my scanner, and so a little larger than the traditional 11” x 17” comic book page. Pages 62-70 are thumbnails (5.5” x 8.5” on bond paper followed by tighter roughs on canary yellow tracing paper (the tight rough for page 69 hasn’t been finished at this point). The next step will be to finalize the dialogue and letter and ink on vellum or thicker tracing paper.
As might be suggested by the pagination, page sixty-one begins the third thirty-page “issue” (although I’m not sure Megaton Man and the Doom Defiers will be a series or a graphic novel collection). The thirty-page unit hearkens back to the fullsome issues I did, particularly for Kitchen Sink Press, of Megaton Man and Border Worlds, that often averaged thirty or more pages out of thirty-six interior pages. At the time, I had in mind the old underground comics that never ran ads; now, I just find that I think in terms of story segments that run about thirty pages each.
Our Story Thus Far …
How this fits into continuity: In the previous two “issues” of Doom Defiers, our cast is settling into their routines following the allegorical excursion of X-Amount of Comics: 1963 (WhenElse?!) Annual (Fantagraphics Underground, 2023). In that story, the cast of Megaton Man runs into versions of characters I designed for In Pictopia as well as parody-avatars of characters from 1963. At the end of that adventure, all of the characters get sucked back into the Megaton Man universe.
In this third issue, the Question Mark Quartet, who are essentially counterparts to the Megatropolis Quartet from an alternate reality, inherit the Quantum Tower, fabled headquarters of the group that played an important role in the early issues of Megaton Man as well as The Savage Dragon vs. the Savage Megaton Man (Image Comics, March 1993). Previously, the Question Mark Quartet had an underground bunker, so this shift to a midtown Manhattan skyscraper is quite a change.
In the sequence, the Human Meltdown (Chuck Roast) appears towing a suitcase, having been kicked out of the Doom Defiers and denied lodging with Trent Phloog (Megaton Man) in Hell’s Kitchen. Chuck tries talking the Question Mark Quartet into letteing him stay. Complicating this is Trigger Flintlock, the Minor Meltdown. This version of Trigger is still a child, although Trigger in Chuck’s reality is his estranged father. In any case, the two don’t get along.
Chuck also has designs on Stella Starlight (Limber Lass), who is his half-sister in this reality. But since Limber Lass is from another reality, Chuck seems to want to behave as if they weren’t related. Ahem.
Rex Rigid, Liquid Man, who in the continuity has previously been killed off, shows up in a spigot, ready to explain how the Quantum Tower was restored after Megaton Man #2 (Kitchen Sink Press, February 1985) by evildoers (it appears restored, without explanation, in The Savage Dragon vs. the Savage Megaton Man #1). The flashback includes Kozmik Kat and Clarissa James (Ms. Megaton Man), and corresponds to a prose chapter of The Ms. Megaton Man Maxi-Series, “The Quantum Tower”).
Rex then proceeds to tell how he survived his inadvertant death at the claws of Kozmik Kat (this latter refers to a scene from Megaton Man: Return to Megatropolis; you can view a partially-colored PDF of that adventure here).
The Bigger Picture
You will want to know when Megaton Man and the Doom Defiers is coming out. The short answer is: It’s still on the drawing board, so hang on. There are several other projects in the queue, and this would be a good time to go over them.
The Complete Megaton Man Universe, Volume I: The 1980s is currently at the printer. There was a successful Zoop for the hardcover version and there will also be a softcover available everywhere you can get comics and graphic novels. As of this writing, it is not yet available for preorder, but it should appear on the Fantagraphics and Amazon sites and others very soon. This 600-page volume reprints all of the 1980s Kitchen Sink Press Megaton Man comics issue, including The Return of Megaton Man and the one-shots, scanned and remastered from original art, with historical (and hysterical) extras.
The Complete Megaton Man Universe, Volume II: The 1990s will reprint the Kitchen Sink Press Bizarre Heroes #1 one-shot, The Savage Dragon vs. the Savage Megaton Man #1 one-shot (courtesy of Erik Larsen; thanks, Erik!), and the entire Fiasco Comics run of Don Simpson’s Bizarre Heroes; again, all black and white, closer to 650 pages. Best guess is summer 2026, folks.
The Complete Megaton Man Universe, Volume III: The Lost Microbus Saga will reprint the Megaton Man Weekly Serial and Image Comics Megaton Man: Hardcopy #1 and #2 and Megaton Man: Bombshell #3. The print edition will be in black and white with a hybrid color PDF available showing the original strips (many were not colored at a resolution suitable for print, unfortunately). This will be a 160-page graphic novel. Since I’ve already laid out the book, we may publish this before Volume II late in 2025 or early 2026. Stay tuned.
The Complete Megaton Man Universe, Volume IV: Megaton Man: Return to Megatropolis is the graphic novel PDF referenced above. I am currently furthering the coloring for and plan to post updated pages here in the near future. It will also be a 160-page graphic novel, but unlike the previous volumes, in full color. My plan is to finish the coloring and have it ready for publication by the end of 2025.
In terms of reading order and continuity, X-Amount falls after that, making Doom Defiers the next project in the Megaton Man narrative. Whether it will be subtitled The Complete Megaton Man Universe, Volume V or whether I’ve long given up that schema remains to be seen, but for now that’s how I’m thinking of it. Color or black and white has not been determined.
Thanks for your support
The subtext here is that furthering all of these projects, including Megaton Man and the Doom Defiers, depends upon the success of Complete Volume I, now at the printer, along with another project, Megaton Man: Multimensions, for which we will be launching a Kickstarter in April. I will have more on that collaborative, full-color project coming from Cosmic Lion Productions, in future posts.
More soon! Thanks for your support.