Comics-Haters Beware: MsMM is an SJW!

One of the more perverse trends of our time has been the emergence of the thuggish Comics-Hate, a group of disgruntled former mainstream superhero writers and artists whose fifteen minutes of perpetuating corporate-owned trademarks expired before they wanted it to (too bad, too - now we'll never get to see mainstream characters beating up migrant caravans of homeless refugees fleeing persecution at the southern border or extinguishing peaceful candlelight vigils in front of Jefferson's Rotunda on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville).

Social justice? No, Ms. Megaton Man just likes shattering skeletons!
™ and © Don Simpson 2018, all rights reserved.

Wrongfully attributing the short life-expectancy of their careers to inexorable demographic trends, Comics-Hate's favorite target for bullying has been those they deem "Social Justice Warriors"  - a tag that forms the conveniently anti-Semitic-sounding acronym "SJW" - a pejorative they apply indiscriminately to anyone who wants comics to move into the twenty-first century and reflect the world we live in. Their faith in the free market is such that they announce boycotts and issue threats of violence to those who've "adulterated" their friendly little hobby.

Clarissa James, who has been around since 1985 (Megaton Man #4, to be exact), has something to say to the Death-Zombies of Comics-Hate: we have already displaced you. You are completely superfluous; please curl up under the rock you crawled out from under (or return to your parents' basement).
__________
Be a Social Justice Warrior and read the YA prose Ms. Megaton Man™ Maxi-Series! New oppression-bashing chapter each week!
__________
All characters, character names, likenesses, words and pictures are ™ and © Don Simpson 2020, all rights reserved.

Divest of Whatever: Clarissa Called Out!

Being a true Megaheroine has nothing to do with "Staying in your lane," "Looking like me," or "Getting woke!" - as Ms. Megaton Man can tell you. It's about being true to yourself and doing your own thing, and letting other people mind their own business.

Clarissa faces a peculiar Paquebot and the even more peculiar Harold Hébert, with Deirdre and Simon along for the adventure! Stay tuned for more news in 2019. All characters, character names, likenesses, words and pictures are ™ and © Don Simpson 2018, all rights reserved.

So, Clarissa has some advice for all those folks who want to call her out and tell her what to do and how to be: "Bite me!"

Pushing back against ugly, intrusive discourse has been her motto since 1985! What else would you expect from Ms. Megaton Man?! All characters, character names, likenesses, words and pictures are ™ and © Don Simpson 2018, all rights reserved.

My characters are all about finding themselves, casting off labels, and breaking molds. If you want the generic, focus-grouped, pre-programmed -- there are other plenty of other franchises to turn to. Leave my Megaverse alone!

And Happy Thanksgiving! -- Don Simpson.

[Recent sketches from the ol' drawing board!]

Clarissa James, Social Justice Warrior!

Update: April 11, 2020:

Here's the inking and coloring of a drawing that began as a sketch in 2018, and conceptually as something of a rueful inside joke to myself. We Ms. Megaton Man kicking the shit out of a robot. What we don't see is her tackling everything bothering me at the time, including bogus "closed-curtain" non-profits and their night-flight "Not My Presidents," white-male-supremacist Comics-Gay-Haters, and genuinely indifferent privileged assholes or all stripes, investing this image with some really positive energy. On the level of a nice drawing and colorful megahero illustration, I hope you enjoy!

Clarissa James, robot shit-kicker!

Original Post: November 16, 2018:

Let's hear it for the Social Justice Warriors - Rod Serling, Stirling Silliphant, Gene Roddenberry, Norman Lear, Larry Gelbart, Stan Lee - without whom we wouldn't have many of the historic mid-century entertainment and enduring media franchises we know and love today. (Why, if The Mighty Thor were being launched today, Dr. Don Blake would be a legal abortion provider in an under-served region of the U.S., fighting regressive politicians with reason and religious hypocrites with Norse Neo-Paganism!)

It's times like these I wish I had an inker to pass off these pencils to ...

In that spirit, Clarissa James is also a progressive activist fighting for social change - okay, she's just kicking robot ass in this pencil sketch - but she was ahead of her time in the 1980s, and is still committed to making the world a more inviting, inclusive, tolerant and loving place. If that's token suburban armchair liberalism, I find it preferable to the looks-like-me Occupy Utopia - or sterile, low-hanging fruit crass propagandistic scrawling that passes for political cartooning these days - or the phony-populist Redneck separatist extremes on tap today. We've got to first imagine a better world before we can realize one, and that should be art and entertainment's laudable if humble goal.

(And I'm keeping a Blacklist of anyone associated with Comicsgash - they will never work on Ms. Megaton Man, Social Justice Warrior or any of the Megaton Man or Bizarre Heroes universe titles!)

Read the YA prose Ms. Megaton Man™ Maxi-Series! New chapter every Friday!

All characters, character names, likenesses, words and pictures are ™ and © Don Simpson 2020, all rights reserved.

Taking a Swipe at the Culture Wars!

Proving once again I utterly lack the subtle touch for editorial cartooning of my social betters (although the threshold has been lowered in recently decades), I offer my half-baked commentary on a current controversy in comics. Namely, should we kick the crap out of bigots, or ask for their autographs at cons?

Clarissa socks a White (and presumably) Nationalist penciller as Megaton Man, X-Ray Boy, and Gower Goose ponder the impact a pencil sketch will have on our civic discourse. ™ and © Don Simpson 2018, all rights reserved.

[More on the above drawing here!]

In case you don't recognize the inspiration, it's from an image by a couple of Jewish guys (who can never be replaced), punching the schnozz out of Der Führer (dictators seem to love flowing ties, don't they?!). Maybe the idea would be clearer if I caricatured more Neanderthal comic book creators calling for Whites-Only entertainment, or included more Nazis (is there a distinction?). But I'm too lazy, although I reserve the right to add more Nazis if and when I bother to ink this (you can never show enough Nazis getting beaten up).

Simon and Kirby beat up Hitler before Pearl Harbor, a reminder that cartoons can't always prevent actual war.

Here's another page from the sketchbook. Sorry these are only roughs -- I'm supposed to be grading art history papers this weekend (exploited adjunct is my secret identity when I'm not being a Social Justice Warrior), so two full sketchbook pages is really playing hooky.

Congratulations! If you clicked on this blog, you're not a racist! (If I had posted this same image on the Megaton Man blog, it would get three times as many hits -- sadly, this is no lie.)

_________
For more on the Culture Wars and Comics!

An all-new YA prose novel - new chapter every week: The Ms. Megaton Man Maxi-Series!