Megaton Man and the Doom Defiers: This Is the New Stuff!

This seems as good a time as any to explain what I’m up to with the current work-in-progress. The working title is Megaton Man and the Doom Defiers; to date, I’ve completely drawn and lettered some fourteen pages which you can read (below). Although Megaton Man himself has yet to appear (soon!), it concerns all of his supporting cast and particularly Clarissa (Ms. Megaton Man), Simon (his son), and the teams of megaheroes that are now arrayed around New York City a.k.a. Megatropolis.

This material is a direct sequel to Megaton Man: Returnto Megatropolis, the graphic novel for which I completed the art in 2015, and which as of this writing remains unpublished. That graphic novel is line to be published by Fantagraphics Underground following X-Amount of Comics: 1963 (WhenElse?!) Annual, my satirical “completion” of a famous unfinished 1993 comics series in which I had a (minor) hand in, and a two-volume Complete Megaton Man Universe omnibi, the first volume of which is currently being designed by Fantagraphics.

To be clear, X-Amount of Comics is scheduled for release on August 6, 2023 and can be pre-ordered now; it has been printed and is currently on a boat from China heading to W.W. Norton on the Atlantic coast of Pennsylvania. Copies may well hit the distribution network sometime in late July. The Complete Megaton Man Volume I, featuring all the Kitchen Sink material from the 1980s, is planned for release either in late 2023 or early 2024. Volume II, featuring the Bizarre Heroes and Megaton Man Weekly Serial material, would follow sometime in 2024. Megaton Man: Return to Megatropolis would then follow in late 2024 or 2025.

The current work-in-progress, Megaton Man and the Doom Defiers, then, would be some ways off before it sees print; for now, you can follow my progress on it online on Facebook.

In terms of continuity, this new stuff, as I said, is a direct sequel to Return to Megatropolis. It is also a sequel to X-Amount (which is experienced by the Megaton Man characters as a disorienting dream or side trip into an allegorical reality which really happened, but now they’re back in the real world). It is also a sequel to Victory Folks, a side project featuring a group of public domain Golden Age characters who have a cameo in X-Amount.

[One could also describe it is an unauthorized sequel of sorts of In Pictopia (soon to enjoy a second printing from the same Fantagraphics Underground) and get no argument from me.]

Creatively, what is exciting to me is that this new stuff—Megaton Man and the Doom Defiers—stands on the shoulders of a lot of hard work that, with fingers crossed, should materialize as a tiny bookshelf of printed matter over the mid-2020s. It is a progression not only of the Megaton Man (Kitchen Sink) and Bizarre Heroes (Fiasco Comics Inc.) comic book series, but it also integrates and is informed by the hitherto disparate energies of other projects, not the least of which is the Ms. Megaton Maxi-Series, over half a million words of prose I’ve produced.

In terms of setting, the new Megaton Man and the Doom Defiers takes place in New York and New Jersey in the summer of 1993, with flashbacks to previous moments in the history of the Megaton Man universe. Already, you can see below an important flashback with the Devengers, a team that first appeared in Megaton Man #8 (Kitchen Sink Press, February 1986) that occurs in the late 1950s or early 1960s (if you read one issue of Doomsday Revengers in those days, you pretty much read ‘em all!) and a preview of a scene that takes place on July 4, 1976 (guess which image!).

[The Devengers is a good example of a throwaway gag from the Kitchen Sink comics that has since grown to become an important element in the new Megaton Man storyline; another would be the Megaton Mice from issue #2 (February 1986).] 

[For the best explanation of how the Megaton Man comics map to actual dates in the 1980s, see the Ms. Megaton Man Maxi-Series Chapter-by-Chapter Guide.]

There will be other flashbacks and never-before-seen secrets revealed that answer questions nobody ever asked, like how two superhero (megahero) universe were created—and how did they fuse back together. My intention with all of this is not to retcon the Megaton Man universe for the sake of retconning, but to answer some puzzling and interesting questions that capture my imagination.

I’ve been working on these questions since 2015, when I completed Return of Megatropolis, and am thrilled that they are already bearing fruit. If you’ve ever enjoyed Megaton Man or my work, I sincerely hope you enjoy this—this is where it begins to pay off big time.

Enough said, for now. Stay tuned!—Don Simpson.

Academia members can preview the Megaton Man: Return to Megatropolis in a partially-colored PDF.

All of my work is made possible by your direct support of commissions and original art purchases (I don’t do crowdfunding!); thanks for your support!