#44: The Saucer in the Back Yard

“You need to slip out of those grass-stained clothes,” said Preston. “Especially that bloodied Abyssinian Wolves sweatshirt, Trent. My people are bringing over a replacement even as we speak.”

Which Way to the Beach? Ms. Megaton Man Post-Labor Day Volleyball Tests, 2014

Yes, it's after Labor Day, but there is still plenty of warm summer weather, and the Phantom Jungle Girl and Ms. Megaton Man are still up for some Jungle Rules Sandball (along with the Earth Mother). Here are a couple of ink tests made on Clearprint Design Vellum, completed in September 2014, based on sketches from 2012. The storyline relates to material I am working on for The New Megaton Man #3 and #4 (see the Megaton Man blog for more previews!).

Original sketchbook pages from July 2012. Light blue Col-Erase and graphite pencil.

Ink, summer 2014 (completed September 4, 2014).

Ink, September 4, 2014.

Original sketchbook page, 2012.

Penciled tier from the as-yet unpublished graphic novel Megaton Man: Return to Megatropolis, c. 2015.

Preliminary flat-coloring of the finished line art.

Final coloring of the last panel.

Update March 11, 2019: Read Clarissa's account of how she met Stella Starlight, Trent Phloog, Bing Gloom, and the whole universe of Megaheroes in the prose serial Ms. Megaton Man Maxi-Series, the new YA novel by Don Simpson!

Ladies of the Megaverse Revealed!

No, not the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, or the Playboy collegiate special ... just some more sketchbook poses extracted from several sketchbooks stretching over the past few years, all inked last night (Sunday, June 16, 2014). Although they do start out kind of threadbare, then are "clothed" as I ink them!

Here is the development of a Ms. Megaton Man pose, probably from about 2010, running. Left: light blue Col-Erase and graphite pencil; Middle: a tighter version on Pilot pen and Vis-a-Vis Wet Erase Fine Point on canary yellow tracing paper; Right: ink on Bienfang Graphics paper. The last choice was an accident; I usually ink on Clearprint vellum!

Ms. Megaton Man especially is fun to draw, and I have filled many pages of my recent sketches of her to let off steam during grad school and a subsequent year of college teaching, when I did not want to initiate any large-scale cartooning projects that I couldn't complete in a timely manner.

Here is a more overtly Jack Kirby-ish pose for Clarissa, inked on Clearprint 1000HP Design Vellum. Often as warm ups I doodle geometric shapes; this establishes a sense of volume that carries over when I sketch the human figure.

There is always something added and something taken away in the inking process, but that's the nature of cartooning for print. Of course, in the digital environment, there is not real need to ink any more, but I enjoy the craft and am used to thinking and developing the drawing to its fullest in terms of pen or brush lines.

Again, before and after. Somehow Ms. MM tends to resemble Julianna Margulies a bit here!

This selection especially shows how my conception of Ms. Megaton Man's body type and personality has changed over time, or at least it reveals some interesting contrasts. There are also sketches of the Phantom Jungle Girl and See-Thru Girl Android below.

Here I tightened up the pencil sketch in Pilot pen. Six years later, I inked it! Clarissa is a bit to lithe, if not skinny, here.

This is one of my favorite Clarissa poses of all. I've had a jpeg of the pencil as my background on my laptop through the last year or two of grad school. Often, it would show up in classes before I projected my lecture Powerpoint. Odd to finally ink it just yesterday!

Same deal, with the Phantom Jungle Girl. I began inking this quite some time ago, then set aside, finishing it up only last night. It seemed a bit awkward putting a top on her. Perhaps she's at a clothing-optional beach...

These are a couple of rather Gil Kane-ish poses of an indeterminate figure. It didn't feel like I was drawing Ms. Megaton Man, nor did it feel like the Earth Mother (Stella Starlight).

I scanned the above sketches and printed them out to 8.5" x 11". I decided to make them into the See-Thru Girl Android, a mute and immobile version of Stella Starlight's younger persona, and who has been dormant so far in the current Atomic Aftermath continuity. That will change soon as she becomes reactivated and an ongoing character with a mind of her own. What will the real, older Stella do when she is confronted with her younger self? To say nothing of Megaton Man...

The other pose, tightened then inked. This may have been more of a Ms. Megaton Man pose after all, with her stockier, solid frame.

Giganti-Girl: Preview of a Upcoming Plot Development!

Here is a page that I just finished inking (June 12, 2014), based on a sketchbook page from November 2012. It features two themes that have become quite prominent in my work as I enter middle age: physically fit young female bodies, and beach volleyball. I have been plotting out a storyline involving both recently, and some of my old sketchbook studies have come into play!

Here is the original 9" x 12" sketch page from November 2012: a figural group study. The ghost image from the previous page indicates that I was playing with a beach volleyball theme, although I did not have a clear storyline in mind. Also, the Phantom Jungle Girl appears twice. I probably had in mind the Negative Woman from Bizarre Heroes for the towering figure. Columbia, a Liberty-like icon of Americana, is the central figure with the star above her tiara; she was seen in the CBLDF 2010 Annual story I did with Megaton Man and company.

Here I've scanned and blown up the original sketch to an 11" x 17" page (10" x 15" image area), tightened the figures, changed the Phantom Jungle Girl on the left into the Earth Mother, and added Ms. Megaton Man and Genevieve, the daughter of the Human Meltdown. I've also turned the towering figure into a new character, Dr. Winnie Wertz, who has had a host of names relating to size including Giganti-Girl and Gargantuella. I've also made the figure on the lower right, who was probably intended to be Ms. Megaton in the original sketch, into Connie Carlyle, Megaton Man's new sidekick, and a semi-pro beach volleyball player.

The final art, inked on Clearprint 1000HP Design Vellum. Dr. Wertz, or a virtual representation of her, stands as the threshold guardian to a time portal she has left behind that the group once known as the Devengers have located.