Megaton Archives!

Megaton Archives captures a moment (or two) in time. A time in the 80's when comic books shops exploded, and an avalanche of material was available to the comic book reader. But it proved to be overwhelming for everyone involved and the majority of these comics, nearly all black and white books disappeared when the marketplace could not support so many players. The story of Megaton Comics is a little more complicated and has a rather happy ending for a company which shut down just before its much ballyhooed "explosion". 

Gary Carlson was the name behind Megaton, an anthology comic which showcased superheroes first and foremost. The main character unsurprisingly was named "Megaton", an unfortunate choice simply because of the presence of Megaton Man by Don Simpson. The similarity was unintentional. Things are also a bit confusing since "Megaton" is the name of the company, the comic, and the lead hero. 

The debut issue of Megaton landed on the direct-sales stands in 1983 and clocked in at over sixty pages with stories in many genres, but generally superheroes and sci-fi. The first issue featured the writing of editor Gary Carlson and the art of Butch Guice, Erik Larsen, Mike Gustovich, Gene Day, Dan Reed, Ken Landgraf, Frank Fosco and others. We meet heroes such as Megaton, a black man who is dying until a weird experiment grants him immense powers; Vanguard, an alien in Earth's orbit looking out for mankind and forced to get involved; and Ethrian, a hero who arises when a distant planet is overrun by hostile alien forces. There are others, but these three and a young woman named Ultragirl are the ones who will go forward.  

The second issue of Megaton takes a while to reach the readers, two years in fact. So long that more than a few of the talents have gotten jobs with the Big Two. Erik Larsen is still around and Clarke Hawmaker shows up to fill in the spaces alongside folks like Frank Fosco. Gary Carlson suffered a medical situation which hurt the progress of the series at a critical time. 

With the third issue the page count drops and features a new hero called simply The Dragon. Erik Larsen is most generous in bringing his many creations to the Vanguard storyline. This issue feels more professional in many ways than the first two, partly because of the improving craftsmanship but also it seems the book has found a focus -- superheroes. I love this cover. 

Finding new talent seems to have been Gary Carlson's main job on the book and he found a humdinger in Angel Medina who goes on to draw four installments of the lead feature Megaton, and gives the storytelling a big jump up. For some reason too, the characterization of the series seems to improve. The Vanguard stories by Carlson and Larsen are quite good, and the arrival of Grass Green's Wildman and Rubberboy adds quite a bit of zest to a darn good comic package. This issue also features a portfolio by Frances Mao, a talented artist I personally worked with in the late 70's when I was running an APA for a time. 

The book keeps on buzzing along with issue number five. The Megaton story dominates the issue and moves the story along quite a bit with decent effect. Grass Green is back with a hilarious Wildman and Rubberboy story in which they battle an angry Snowman. 

I am a big Grass Green fan and already own the Wildman and Rubberboy comics which were published by Carlson around this time. 

Ethrian is featured on the cover of the sixth issue and returns inside the comic as the space saga hurtles along, but hits a snag when it finishes on a cliffhanger which promises to be developed more in the debut of Ethrian's own comic, a comic which never ever arrives. Sadly, this is also Angel Medina's last issue drawing the Megaton feature. 

Under a pretty dang good cover by Butch Guice, a new artist takes the reins in issue seven, a fellow named Gary Thomas Washington. His style is lighter than what had come before and is a slight drop unfortunately, though still interesting. Ultragirl returns, not seen since issue one and gets in volved in the Megaton storyline. Artist John Thompson also draws a solo outing for the returning heroine and Bill Willingham proves a bit of spot art. 

Megaton ends its run with issue eight which landed on the stands in 1987. It was always intended to be the final black and white issue as Carlson had big plans to launch a color reboot as well as several new comics featuring Vanguard and along with a few others. This issue is also notable in that Rob Liefeld supplies a back-up story with Megaton and Ultragirl and brings romance into the picture. But the big plans don't develop and along with many other comics which had in some ways overwhelmed the young direct sales market, Megaton disappeared with a snap of the fingers. 

Years later the characters morphed into what we know as Big Bang Comics, a series I mightily enjoyed for quite a while. The Image boys appreciated Carlson's early efforts to use their work, and some see Megaton as a precursor to the Image Comics brand itself.  

The fascinating thing about this collection is not just that you get the comics, but you get lots of information and opinion from Carlson himself about the series as it developed and the talents that helped to make it so. Reading this collection was not unlike watching a movie with an audio commentary, something I love to do. There is a suggestion a second volume will emerge publishing material for the first time which was caught in the collapse and giving us all more of an insight into what it was like to make comics in the 1980's. I'll buy it and I highly recommend this volume to one and all. 

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Savage Wars!

Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon is a remarkable achievement. Not only has the now venerable Image Comic lasted for a few hundred issues, it's had an amazing consistency rarely matched in the field. Most creators drift away from even their most successful creations and allow other hands to take over the day to day, but Larsen has demonstrated a will to stand fast which is all too rare. I have to admit I've not followed the series, but recently when I was doing a tour of the cover gallery for the series I was impressed. And I stumbled across the very familiar cover image above for the two hundredth issue.
 

Clearly that image is an homage (and a noted one for sure) to this classic Jack "King" Kirby image showing Cap and Bucky kicking Nazi ass as they were wont to do back in the day.

This pencil image first appeared in the first volume of Jim Steranko's influential, incomplete, and visually impressive History of Comics.

Here's the original Kirby image graced with the inking of the late Dave Stevens. It's a keeper for certain. 

And here is a full-frontal image of the Savage Dragon cover sans the logo and other accoutrements we associate with such publications. Beauties!

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Hitting Hitler!

Captain America Comics #1 was a blockbuster in a host of ways. While not technically the first patriotic hero (i.e.draped in the flag -- that honor goes to MLJ's The Shield), he was the first one who changed the hearts and minds of the readers. I was genuinely surprised to learn that many publishers were quite nervous about a cover such as the one above by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby showing a hero knocking Adolph Hitler in the jaw. They saw it as too provocative, but in the year 1941 Hitler's war had been raging for a few years and his intentions were clear. It seems odd that so many would be so reluctant to showcase a scene like this iconic one.

The image has become so ingrained in the comic book psyche that it's been homaged and swiped many times. Below are just a few.

Day Of The Defenders!

Erik Larsen
It's bracing that it's been practically a decade since the Avengers were hot, hot, hot under the guiding hands of Kurt Busiek and George Perez. That's the last time I really liked the team all that much, and so did lots of folks it seems. So many that Marvel tried to get Busiek to work his charm on revitalizing the Defenders with the help of Erik Larsen. That revival tanked.

But they did hang around long enough to generate the reprint above. This book reprints two of my all-time favorite comic books, both written by my favorite comic book writer Roy "The Boy" Thomas.

One thing that defined Marvel back in the old days was the organic way they told stories. It was partly inspiration but mostly lack of planning. At its core though was a genuine care taken for the readership. If a series abruptly ended, then you could be relatively certain the storyline would pop up somewhere in the Marvel Universe so that your reading experience could be culminated. These necessary stories often proved to generate some of the line's most vivid reading experiences as it often changed up a character's status quo quite effectively.

Gene Colan
The saga of the Lovecraftian menace of the Undying Ones is arguably the best example of this that I can think of. Dr.Strange began his journey in Strange Tales and when Marvel was able to expand its line in the 1968 he was given his own title continuing the numbering of the venerable Strange Tales series. But alas his book beautifully drawn by Gene Colan didn't sale well enough and cancellation came with issue #183 despite some pretty strong attempts to save the series, such as giving him a new swanky superhero-y suit. (This comic isn't reprinted in theDay of the Defenders, but the next two are.)

Marie Severin
The story continues in Sub-Mariner #22 where Dr.Strange shows up to work alongside the quixotic Namor to again beat back the threat of the Undying Ones.

Herb Trimpe
That Subby story ended with the threat of the Undying Ones still looming. Then came Hulk #126 and the saga of the Undying Ones continued. We meet among others the girl who would become Valkyrie and a captured Doc Strange in a story by Roy Thomas and Herb Trimpe that is a trip and half. The wacky Night-Crawler is one of Herb's strangest concoctions.

For a more detailed explanation see this link.

The upshot of all this was that Roy Thomas saw these radically different heroes seem to have a chemistry. Later still Subby, Hulk, and the Silver Surfer (then without his own book) team up in Subby issue #34 and #35.


Sal Buscema
These "Titans Three" stories drawn by Sal Buscema and again scripted by Roy are suggested to be the genesis of the Defenders and that's true to a point, but clearly the real spark were the Undying Ones stories as is proven by the fact the Non-Team take on the Undying threat and eventually it results in their first original member, the aforementioned Valkyrie.

Like I said, Marvel had a real haphazard and organic way of telling stories back in the day. This was a result of the small staff I'm sure, and in the case of these comics the fact Roy wrote all three helped immensely. But nonetheless the blend of clever and random resulting from not planning so carefully as they do these days made for real glimmers of greatness. The Defenders are proof of that.

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The Next Issue Project!

I don't buy much Image. But I made an exception a few years back when the debut issue of "The Next Issue Project" hit the stands. The idea is a clever one, put out a new "next issue" of a defunct Golden Age comic book. Get top-name creators to contribute and give the whole shebang a modern ironic twist. Sounds like fun.

The first issue was the next issue of Fantastic Comics, a Fox publication starring Samson and filled with backup features like Clip Carson, Sub Saunders, Captain Kidd, Stardust, and Space Smith. It was cleverly done, oversized as a Golden Age comic would be. Some of the pages were toned to imitate vintage pulp paper and the whole thing looked snazzy. The stories were uneven, with some offering fun spins on classic concepts and others being downright incomprehensible. The Stardust story by Mike Alred was pretty keen, as well as Tom Yeates spin on the Golden Knight.

The next issue just hit the stands, nearly two years later and it was the "next issue" of Silver Streak Comics starring Daredevil, The Claw, Captain Battle, and Silver Streak. This one was oversized too, but slimmer with fewer features, but I'll have to say they were more enjoyable. None of the stories was impossible to understand, and most were well crafted. The stories were frothy and light, almost too much so, but with talents like Alan Weiss, Erik Larsen, Paul Grist, and Michael T. Gilbert, the contents were professional. My favorite story featured The Claw of today, a corporate figure lost in the requirements of the modern world and the reality of older age.

It takes a long time for these to come out it seems. And that's good, as I don't know that I'd get them much more often than once or twice a year at most.

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