New Megaton Man Logos and the Stories They Will Tell

Recently, I have been working on several new vector art logo designs for upcoming Megaton Man projects; preliminary concepts appear below. Since fans almost immediately ask, "When can I order this? When is this coming out?" I thought this would be as good a time as any to discuss what I plan for 2024 and beyond (if all goes according to plan!).

Megaton Man and the Doom Defiers is the working title of the new work I am creating for Megaton Man and his universe. Like X-Amount of Comics: 1963 (WhenElse?!) Annual, which I posted on Facebook as each page was penciled, lettered, and inked throughout 2022, I am similarly posting work in progress as it comes off the drawing board in 2023. As of this writing, some 48 pages are posted and can be read contiguously in one of my Facebook photo albums.

The storyline is the most current yet in the Megaton Man universe, taking place in the early '90s in New Jersey and New York. It is the direct sequel to X-Amount of Comics as well as the Megaton Man: Return to Megatropolis graphic novel (see below) as well as Victory Folks (2023), and it finds our characters back in their normal reality, settling into their new orientation as various teams around Megatropolis. 

The main action centers around the Doomsday Factory in Bayonne, New Jersey, headquarters of the Doom Defiers. That team's roots in the legacy of the Devengers is explored, along with the importance of missing scientist Winnie Wertz; the homeschooling of cousins Simon Phloog and Geneviève Brulé, now aged eleven, is also of concern to their mothers, Stella Starlight (The See-Thru Girl/Earth Mother) and Felicia Fondue (Distortia); and Clarissa (Ms. Megaton Man) has to deal with both the sudden appearance of herself from another reality, named Kara, and the disappearance some years ago of her sister, Avie.

Meanwhile, Trent Phloog (Megaton Man) must learn to navigate the ability to turn into civilian form almost at will be meds provided by Dr. Joe, as well as roommate problems with Connie Carlyle (Split-Second) and Sandra Sunlight (the android version of Stella); Chuck Roast (the Human Meltdown) finds himself exiled from the Doomsday Factory when his marriage to Felicia hits the skids and tries to crash with Trent; the Question Mark Quartet (from X-Amount) settle into the Quantum Tower, old headquarters of the Megatropolis Quartet; and the Megaton Mice move into the beach house, secretly a laboratory left behind by the absent Winnie Wertz.

A hallmark of this new work is a series of interwoven flashbacks that reveal the origins of characters such as Distortia, show Winnie Wertz and the late-1950s Devengers battling Doctor Braindead, uncover some of the dead-letter correspondence between siblings Stella Starlight and Chuck Roast, and show the first epic battle between Megaton Man and the Human Meltdown--all interwoven with the importance of the Mutanium Particle (the Cosmic Cue-Ball) in the history of this universe.

[This new material is particularly informed by the prose series The Ms. Megaton Man Maxi-Series, of which I posted some 169 weekly chapters and more than half a million uncorrected words from February 23, 2019 to June 22, 2022 (just to show I haven't been resting on my laurels). This material recounted many of the events occurring in the original Kitchen Sink Megaton Man comics from the snarky and irrepressible point of view of Clarissa James, second cousin of Trent Phloog. This work itself was part of a larger project I refer to as "retroactive world-building" that I began in 2015, after I had finished the script for the Return to Megatropolis graphic novel) that addressed a number of relatively minor continuity issues and questions I became obsessed with explaining, if only to myself.]

The point of this new material is not to "retcon" any of the events depicted in the previous Megaton Man or related comics so much as to supplement and fill in the gaps and answer questions that have only emerged over time. My plan is to continue producing the art and story and post on Facebook. I will formulate plans in 2024 to release the material as a graphic novel or some other form of print publication.

The Complete Megaton Man Universe is the name of the two-volume omnibi collecting the Kitchen Sink Press Megaton Man series (ten issues) as well as the three-issue miniseries The Return of Megaton Man and the one-shots Megaton Man Meets the Uncategorizable X+Thems, Yarn Man, and Pteranoman. The 600-page volume will also include unused, rejected, and alternate pages, covers, and artwork.

The second volume with include the Kitchen Sink Bizarre Heroes one-shot as well as the complete Don Simpson's Bizarre Heroes series (seventeen issues) published by Fiasco Comics, including Megaton Man vs. Forbidden Frankenstein and Megaton Man #0 as well as the Image Comics Megaton Man: Hardcopy (two issues) and Megaton Man: Bombshell as well as portions of the online Megaton Man Weekly Serial that ran concurrently as a backup feature in Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon. The art will be reproduced in black and white for uniformity.

Fantagraphics Underground, which published X-Amount, is currently designing both volumes. As of this writing, no release date has been set, but I expect a mid-2024 release, in time for Megaton Man's fortieth anniversary.

Megaton Man: Return to Megatropolis is the 160-page graphic novel that I began in 2002 and completed in 2016. Prompted by the events of 9/11, I decided to shelve the project for more than a decade as I returned to college and earned my BA, MA, and PhD in art and architectural history. I resumed the project in 2014 and finished the script for the final sixty pages in 2015; I completed the inked and lettered art in 2016. Much of the artwork at various stages of completion has been posted in various places. As of this writing, coloring has been about half completed, but I have no contract with a publisher or release date in mind at this time; I would like for it to appear in 2024.

The storyline uses the events of 9/11 to bring the characters back to New York City/Megatropolis after a long exile in the Midwest. Paradoxically, the terrorist attack that wipes out the city's megaheroes takes place ten years earlier (1991) in the Megaton Man universe; it also promotes Megaton Man and company to the frontlines of megaherodom. The Megatropolis Quartet closes shop when Professor Rex meets an accidental death, and the Doom Defiers is formed of the remnants of the Quartet and the Devengers. Simon Phloog and cousin Geneviève Brulé explore their own nascent megahero powers, and melodrama abounds as Trent Phloog finds he has a new roommate.

Don Simpson's Comix & Stories is the working title for a collection of short stories I was planning to complete for fall 2023 release, in a show-only edition formatted like the complete Victory Folks issue I published this spring (2023). However, a week-long bout of Covid in August has likely moved this back to early 2024. Like Victory Folks, will be a black-and-white, show-only, magazine-size (8" x 10.5") 40-pager.

Stories include a 10-page sequel to Bizarre Heroes #15 featuring the Slick and Ms. Megaton Man; a 9-page follow-up to Victory Folks called Heroine Hotel; a story from 2014 based on Rumpelstiltskin; and a 5-page story called Mick Mischief. Rump and Mick have both already seen print in Yeet Presents, a small-press anthology, and art for the other two stories has been previewed on the internet in various places.

Like Victory Folks, the idea is to gather my IP from various sources and collect them into editions that are easier for readers to track down. The larger format will also give readers a better view of the art. About 19 pages still need to be inked, and I may yet expand the page count to include more bonus material.

Title page to Megaton Man #5 with stacked logo.

The "stacked" Megaton Man logo is not connected to any particular project, although it might appear on the title page to one of the Complete Megaton Man Universe volumes. A hand-drawn version of this configuration appeared in Megaton Man #5 (Kitchen Sink Press, August 1985) and a T-shirt design by Graphitti Designs in the late 1980s. It forms a reverse of the usual Megaton Man logo, emphasizing "MAN" in all caps, while the usual logo features "man" in beatnik-jazzy lowercase, a look associated with the original Fantastic Four logo in the 1960s.

This all-caps banner is the foundation of all the above logo compositions. A stacked all-caps logo was featured on the first issue, Megaton Man #1 (December 1984), with "MAN" slightly smaller than "MEGATON"; it also appeared on a promotional poster in late 1984; but it has not been seen since. The equal weight given to both words on the same line is a first in the history of the IP, and reflects, perhaps, a new outlook for the series going forward, in which the civilian Trent Phloog and his relationship with other characters is at least as important as the megaheroics.

The cover to Megaton Man #1 (December 1984).

Megaton Man promotional poster, 1984.

An assortment of Megaton Man comics in the collection of Tim Prowant featuring the lowercase "man" logo that appeared on Megaton Man #2 (Feburary 1985) and has been the IP identity for four decades.

Addenda

I'm loathe to give me definite details or predictions about release dates and future plans for Megaton Man  than I've already given above. I'm reminded of

I think of the Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu, as quoted by Marshall McLuhan in Understanding Media in 1964 (translationg by James Legge, 1891), which I first came across in the late 1970s:

He who stands on his tiptoes does not stand firm; [...]
He who boasts of what he will do accomplishes nothing that endures.

I recall this passage particularly as it relates to Megaton Man because while I was at work on the first issue in Detroit, a friend of mine who was a filmmaker bragged about how he was going to take over Hollywood (at the same time he put down everyone else's artistic ambitions, including my humble comics). Well, Megaton Man is now approaching forty years old, while, as far as I know, my old friend is still reworking that 16mm student film into a masterpiece.

I'm astonished that the comic industry, such as it is in the twenty-first century, still operates on the principle of announcing projects and release dates (and crowd-funders) with barely so much as cover artwork in hand--and people wonder why they perennially get into jams, delivering product late or never at all.

In any case, if you follow me on Facebook or here on this blog, you will be the first to know the latest news concerning the Megaton Man IP and the above works in progress. Thanks for your support!