Christie Kelly appeared in issue #1 and didn’t reappear until Megaton #7, but she did make a few cameo s in the “Looking for Heroes” house ads that we ran in the book, which gave us our only glimpses of Ultragirl as drawn by other top Megaton artists. As mentioned before, Butch Guice was the original Ultragirl artist. He drew her origin in issue one and came back to provide the cover for her return in issue seven.
Frank Fosco created and drew the Ethrian stories and his first stab at Ultragirl was in the color promo back cover to Megaton #5. Frank was back a few years later pencilling the lead story “White Christmas” in the Megaton X-Mas Special which furthered the romance between Megaton and Ultragirl. It was a fun story scripted by Ron Fortier and inked by Aubrey Bradford.
The only time I can recall Erik Larsen drawing Ultragirl back then was in another one of the promos. I wasn’t smart enough to keep a copy of the pencils, but here is Erik’s take on her as inked by Don Drake. I’m throwing in another of Erik’s “Looking for Heroes” pieces even though U-girl isn’t in it. This single piece captures the spirit of the Megaton book as far as I’m concerned (and adds a bit of color today).
Next up is a semi finished illo by the amazing Angel Medina, again the only time I recall him drawing the character. Angel was the first recurring artist on the Megaton strip. The artists kept getting professional work from the big companies after one story. Mike Gustovich was first. Bill Reinhold was briefly set to follow Mike in #2 but was gone before we got to it. Clarke Hawbaker replaced Bill for #2 and was then off to Marvel.
I was lucky enough to have Angel Medina stick around for three issues. Gary Thomas Washington was on board for issues 7 and 8 and his first published Megaton piece also contained Ultragirl. Next up is a piece by long-time Megaton and Big Banger Shawn Van Briesen from 1987.
Both of these pieces feature her in the loose belt sash and floppy turtleneck collar, even though Gary Washington drew her in her original skin-tight uniform in both of his published stories. The only story in which Christie wore the variant costume was the back-up feature in Megaton #8, drawn by a young Rob Liefeld. We’ll see more of his Ultra art next time.
Finally, last time around I shared a wrap around cover painting by John Thompson for the X-Mas Special. This time, I have the ink line art version of that cover for you, which also contain’s Rob’s Youngblood characters singing carols outside the window. Youngblood was solicited as the main feature in Megaton Special #1 and were slated to appear in the X-Mas Special. The sales just weren’t there and we closed down the Megaton shop.
All characters are copyright by Gary Carlson or their respective owners. Ethrian is copyright by Frank Fosco. Vanguard is copyright by Gary Carlson and Erik Larsen. Youngblood and related characters are copyright and trademark by Rob Liefeld & co.
