Berzerker #1 was published in 1993 by Gauntlet Comics, an imprint of Gary Reed’s Caliber Press. The back-up feature was a short comic book story entitled “The Time Crimes of Grandfather Clock!” and featured a character called the Knight Watchman.
A banner above the first page read BONUS: KNIGHT WATCHMAN CLASSIC! At the bottom was the footnote: Originally Published In Deductive Comics #38, August 1940. The story was told in a style now referred to as “retro” and was an homage to Golden Age Batman stories and creators.
It was also the birth of Big Bang Comics.
Big Bang began in 1992 when Chris Ecker told me that he was tired of comic book publishers and art directors telling him that he drew like an “old guy” and that he was going to sit down and draw an old style comic book story and that I was going to write it. We were at a local one day comic show and Chris wouldn’t let me leave until that damn story was laid out and written. They eventually kicked us out and we went off to my house and kept working on it.
We decided that Big Bang would tell the backstories/history of the universe of my Megaton comic book from the 1980s. The Megaton characters were a new generation of super heroes. Ultragirl was replacing her father Ultraman, kid sidekick the Sentinel had already replaced the Crusader, Vanguard was newly arrived on Earth from a distant planet and Matt (Megaton) Scott was the new kid on the block.
Chris had drawn the Sentinel story in Megaton #1. For this new story we decided to turn back the clock and do a “classic” tale featuring his mentor, the Crusader. Chris had drawn him for the entry in our who’s who Megaton Explosion. Sidekick Sparky, eventually the Sentinel, was drawn by Gordon Purcell in one of his first published pieces, I believe.
Unfortunately, the Crusader seemed a bit too blah and generic. We redesigned and rechristened him as the Protector. That wasn’t right either and Chris suggested the name Night Watchman, from a character he had toyed with the year before. His original plan had been to do a gritty, modern day Daredevil type of character. This may have been where he got tired of hearing the “drew like an old guy” thing.
I suggested adding a “K” making him the Knight Watchman. Everything seemed to fall in place. Chris’ first professional work in comics had been as an assistant to Rick Fletcher on the Dick Tracy comic strip, where he learned to letter. The early Batman comics seemed heavily influenced by Dick Tracy, so we took our Knight Watchman in that direction.
Chris next drew the Mr. Mask pin-up. Our hero has the eyeball logo on his chest as in “always watching” and has gained his lace-up wrestler’s boots. It definitely has a Bob Kane Batman feel to it, but the signature is not yet Tom King’s. Chris signed the first drawing using the pen name Timothy Allen.
Because Tim Allen was becoming a major TV star on “Home Improvement”, Chris changed his nom de plume to Tom King. With a nod to Bob Kane, we placed the “Created by” and signature inside of a crown shaped box (fit for a king, naturally). Ironically, there is a top writer at DC comics these days whose name really is Tom King, and he’s just been named the new writer on Batman. Sheesh!
Then came a “Who He Is” page to introduce the character. At this point he was still the Protector with the eyeball logo. (You can see both at the top of this page). By the time the piece was published, the evolution was complete and the Knight Watchman had been born.
We had fully accepted the pastiche concept by this point. Batman had the best villains so we devised a rogue’s gallery. Our Knight Watchman was going to face Mr. Mask, Pink Flamingo, the Little Giant, Paper Doll, Quizmaster, Grandfather Clock, Baron von Fledermaus – the Bat, the Creep, Cheshire Cat and many more.
Here you can see a layout that Chris penciled for a Deductive Comics cover featuring the Watchdog, Mr. Mask (using the name The Masque), Baron von Fledermaus, and the Pink Flamingo.
All of this happened in a matter of days. Now that we had decided on the character’s name and backstory, Chris penciled and lettered the story we had written, and asked Paul Fricke to ink it.
The eyeball was still part of Knight Watchman’s chest logo when “Time Crimes” appeared in Berzerker #1 in 1993, but it had been adapted to a less creepy eye on a shield. (Knight and Watchman, get it?) 
By the time Big Bang Comics #1 appeared the next year, his chest shield had been darkened to its familiar form.
Gary Carlson
3/28/2016
PS: I apologize if some of this is familiar to you. Last time around I encouraged readers to seek out earlier BANG! posts for info on the evolution of the Knight Watchman.
But when I went looking through the site to try to keep from duplicating too much info, I found that those very posts were missing, so I’ve incorporated some of that material into this and the next installment.
Until then . . .
