Ultraman faked his death at the end of the main story in Megaton #7 and left for the tropics to stay out of sight and never be tempted to recharge his powers by leeching from his daughter Christie, who was now the only supply of Ultranium energy left since the destruction of the meteor. (Later Christie would discover that her powers were permanent and did not need to be recharged.)
The back-up story in Megaton #7 dealt with Christie coping with the apparent death of her dad, and also her infatuation with Matt “Megaton” Scott, who had been her teen idol of choice a few years earlier. The story featured art by John Thompson, who was a major contributor in those waning days of Megaton Comics and the to return of some of the characters a few years later in Big Bang Comics. 
John is a fantastic artist and did some of the best ghosting work ever at Big Bang. His Golden Age Knight Watchman, Ultiman and Mighty Man work is among BB’s finest. Still, some of my favorite art by John was and remains his Ultraman and Ultragirl pieces. The Ultragirl art from last time is one, and the header art here, with U-Man and the eagle is also at the top of my list. The name at the right originally said ULTRAMAN, but I altered it to use for Big Bang after the name had changed.
Why the name change? I don’t recall if I was aware of the Japanese Ultraman in 1981, but I was certainly familiar with DC’s Crime Syndicate bad guy of the same name. He hadn’t been used much by ’81, as I recall. Same with Aquaman’s one off co-star Crusader. I used both names for the “throw-away” old-timers in Megaton #1.
When we decided to tell their retro adventures in Big Bang, we needed something a little more original, unique and less confusing. DC started doing more with their Earth 3 character in 1982 and beyond, so our Ultraman became Ultiman, and I described earlier how the Crusader morphed into the Knight Watchman.
Among the other art by John Thompson I’m sharing with you today are two pieces rendered in charcoal. There is a third (not shown here) featuring Megaton talking to reporters so I’m guessing maybe these were done for a newspaper feature that never appeared in the book. Or maybe John was just having fun or showing off like I am today.
Finally, there are two pieces John did for the Megaton X-Mas Special that was eventually published a few years later by Don Chin’s Entity Comics. The single pager features both Ultragirl and Ultraman, plus Megaton and his gang of heroes: Ethrian, Vanguard, Ramm, Berzerker, and the immortal Grass Green’s Wildman. That’s me, by the way, filling in for Santa Claus. Unfortunately, I didn’t need any padding to fit the suit.
The other X-Mas art is a gorgeous painting of many of the same characters joined by the real Santa Claus, Wildman’s partner Rubberroy, Matt Scott’s butler Napier, ward Timmy Manson, Vanguard’s girl friend Roxanne Wells and Van’s best friend and robot companion Wally. I added a few logos to show what it might have looked like as the printed cover. The painting itself is a massive 3’x4′ and a thing of beauty. It’s X-Mas all year in my studio. Thanks John.
