Process: Pteranoman #1
Legal Pad Notes, roughs, and lettered pencils for my last KSP comic
Pteranoman #1 (Kitchen Sink Press, August 1990) would be my final comic book for the company. An anthology of three stories, it could count as one-third of a Megaton Man issue, or #17. In another sense, it was a portent of things to come—a more straight-faced but still humorous superhero book—a forerunner to Don Simpson’s Bizarre Heroes, the series I would self-publish in the 1990s.
The lead story, concerning the title character—who had appeared in Shell Shock, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles paperback—owes more than a little to the Adam West Batman on two levels.
First, dressed in dinosaur garb, “State Senator Pete Teriano” is a humorless megahero who fights resurrected dinosaurs and scientists who become Tyrannosaurus Rexes, oblivious to the patent absurdities of the situation.
Second, this was less overt parody in the Megaton Man mold than high camp—much like the Adam West Batman show I thrilled to as a youngster on network TV.
My feeling at the time was that superheroes had drifted from a lighthearted, humorous approach, and needed less of “cult-deprogramming” shock I had attempted to administer in the early issues of Megaton Man and more of a gentle prod.
At the time, the “grim and gritty” movement had progressed so much that all you had to do to embarrass a typical fan was mention Adam West. So, I thought this approach for Pteranoman was perhaps radical enough.
I happened to be in Wisconsin for editor Dave Schreiner’s wedding, if I’m recalling correctly, and I remember pitching Pteranoman from the backseat of the car as the publisher drove a group of us, including art director Pete Poplaski, to Ripon for the reception at the birthplace of the Republican party—a local tourist attraction rented out for weddings and such.
The response I got convinced me that I was bad at pitches, or at least my ideas didn’t transmit verbally—both the publisher and Pete thought at last I had gone too far. I resolved to simply proceed with the comic and let them judge the finished product.
They eventually agreed to publish it. It was my second-lowest selling comic after Border Worlds #7.
I hadn't made the connection between Pteranoman and Adam West -- not consciously, anyway. But it probably explains why the character resonated with me so strongly.