Cape Catch-Up: CJ Soars!

This sequence from the all-new fifth issue of Megaton Man: Return to Megatropolis (which I plan to release as a graphic novel, not individual issues, publication details TBD) features Clarissa James, Ms. Megaton Man (who has the distinction of having the most nicknames of any of my characters -- Missy, Sissy, CJ) coming to the rescue of the beleaguered Man of Molecules. I began penciling this sequence in summer 2015, and finished in February 2016. Some adjustments were made, primarily on tier 4A, in which I altered the background. (More previews over on the Megaton Man blog!)

Light blue Col-Erase and graphite pencil (with some Pilot Razorpoint pen) on bond layout, 11" x 14".

Original figure with background penciled in; the action in the background, however, no longer seemed appropriate considered the way the preceding tiers worked out.

New background penciled today!

Foreground and background fused together in Photoshop. The tiers will be inked on Clearprint Design Vellum over printouts of the roughs.

Salon des Bandes Dessinées and Aztec Beach Volleyball?!

Here are the exercises Frank Santoro led us through last night at the Pittsburgh Comics Salon, held at Lili's Cafe in Polish Hill. The theme was 3-panel and 4-panel comic strip timing (à la Charles M. Schulz). Naturally, I defaulted to a Ms. Megaton Man sequence, which segued into a beach volleyball game held at an Aztec ballcourt (isn't that a mainstream genre already?). Now I'll have to turn this into a story!

 Update: The 2 x 2 layout I started at Lili's and completed this morning:

To be continued ...

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Penciled tier from the as-yet unpublished graphic novel Megaton Man: Return to Megatropolis, c. 2015.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

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.

Sandball Goddess: Some Art Historical Swiping

Just to show that I'm not always swiping from my old sketchbooks, here I am swiping from art history. In fact, when I taught a class in art history last fall at Carlow University, I realized that the work I was swiping (a sculpture from a niche at CMU) was actually a swipe of a specific figure from a famous temple in India:

Erotic figures, Kandariya Mahadeva Temple, Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India, c. 1000 CE. Chandella dynasty.

Scribe figure, Fine Arts Building, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh (my photograph).

Clarissa in beach volleyball attire, sketchbook drawing, c. 2010.

What is interesting is that the first figure appears to be grinding makeup, while the CMU adaptation has the same figure doing something more scholarly, presumably writing on a notepad or book of some sort. I'm not sure what Clarissa is doing; perhaps jotting down a play for competition. I'd like to do a complete comic book someday that is nothing but swipes from various art historical sources, and let readers guess where each is from.

The Ms. Megaton Man Story: Told in Pictures and Panels

This blog is under construction, but for the time being, here are some pictures to look at: