Big Bang Chronological Part 6: Berzerker #2: Ultiman |

Ultraman, the Ultimate Human Being first appeared in Megaton #1 in 1983. Both he and his buddy the Crusader appeared in that first issue mainly to pass the torch to the next generation of heroes that were to be the stars in the Megaton Universe. In fact, Ultraman blew up in that issue and his powers passed on to his daughter.

After Chris Ecker and I retrofitted the Crusader into the Knight Watchman in 1992, we naturally turned to the other old-timer from Megaton. However, just about the only change we made to him was his name. Japan’s Tsuburaya Productions’ Ultraman was back in production in the early 1990s, and DC was doing more with its Earth-3 characters.

And so our guy became Ultiman! For the back-ups in Berzerker #2, we reprinted the first half of the story from Megaton with art by Butch Guice that told the renamed and relettered character’s Silver Age origin and Chris wrote and drew a slightly different two page Golden Age origin for him, with a nod to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

Both stories appeared under a BONUS ULTIMAN CLASSIC banner, while the footnote on one read “Originally published in Hi-Octane Comics #2, February 1939” and the other read “Originally published in Megaton #1, March 1983.”

I think that our biggest inspiration as to what Big Bang could be may have been the Catalan Communications 1987 trade paperback collection of the comic strip The Cabbie by Spanish artist Marti Riera. In this violent 1970s strip, Marti mimics the artwork, style, and pacing of Chester Gould’s classic Dick Tracy of the 1930’s and 40’s. In his introduction to the tpb, Art Spiegelman said that “other artists, from Al Capp to Andy Warhol, have paid homage to, parodied, swiped from or been inspired by Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy. Only Marti has been able to recreate it.”

That was our goal with Big Bang Comics: to recreate the styles of the writers and artists of the past and pay homage to them. Chris once said “I considered us to be the Rich Little or Elvis impersonators of comics, using the voices & styles of the creators more than aping their creations.”

My own other Big Bang inspiration came from the Solar Pons stories by August Derleth, which had originally introduced me to the concept of the pastiche; “a dramatic, literary, or musical piece created in a generally tongue-in-cheek yet respectful imitation of another’s style.”

The Pons stories were styled very closely after Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. They seemed a bit too much like Holmes to me, where only the names had been changed.

Once we got past the first two stories, while we were trying to tell a Superman or Batman-type story, we tried to make the characters as original as possible with their own origins and quirks. We always aimed for that “left-hand turn” to add a different spin to the archetype.

Berzerker #1 was published in February of 1993 and the reaction from friends and fans was fantastic – – for the back-up strip starring the Knight Watchman! We were astonished to hear from so many people who thought that we had actually reprinted an obscure story and character from the 1940s.

Big Bang caught on pretty fast and the back-ups became more popular than the main Berzerker character. Suddenly, instead of two or three characters we were talking about an entire pantheon of heroes, an alternative universe or universes! Gold, Silver, Bronze and Modern versions of the characters!

Alan Moore’s 1963 series started appearing from Image Comics in 1993. It turned out that there was a market for these new “old comics.” Our publisher, Caliber Press asked for a Big Bang series and we were happy to oblige. The outside back cover of Berzerker #2 featured an ad for the upcoming Big Bang Comics series. But it became obvious that Chris wasn’t going to be able to draw it all.

Luckily, we starting getting submissions right away from our friends who enjoyed what we were doing. The first and most inspirational to me was from David Zimmermann, whose four pieces featuring the Knight Watchman in the 30’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s pointed out to us what MORE could be done. He also drew the Wayne Boring/Dirk Lively Ultiman figure that became the centerpiece of “Who He Is and How He Came to Be”.

Over the years Dave drew some of Big Bang’s finest pages, including the cover to Big Bang #12, interior chapters in that Savage Dragon cross-over, the full-length Knight Watchman Meets the Verdict in BB #30 and my own personal favorite, from BB #11, Galahad in “The Library Looter”. Dave Zimmermann started us on the path to really make an effort to nail the ghosting of styles for Big Bang. Thanks Dave.

For more information about Ultiman, be sure to check out our trade paperback, Ultiman: The Ultimate Collection (The Big Bang Comics Collection) available for a mere $9.99 at Amazon.com.