Category: The BANG! Blog

Ultragirl and Father

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Lt. Christopher Kelly was the golden boy of the original NASA astronauts in the Megaton and Big Bang universes. The second man in space in the Mercury program, he was aboard a Gemini capsule that was struck by a radioactive meteor. The radiation killed his fellow astronaut, but Kelly survived re-entry to Earth where he was terminally ill with radiation sickness. Luckily, his body metastasized and instead of killing him absorbed the radiation, transforming it into energy. Kelly became a human battery: he was strong, invulnerable, able to fly, and many other powers manifested over the years. The press called him the “ultimate human being” and eventually Ultraman.

Unfortunately, his body burned the atomic energy and had to be periodically recharged by the Ultranium (ultra-uranium) meteor. At first it operated like Popeye eating spinach. Over time, he had to expose himself to larger and larger doses. It was during one of these sessions that something went drastically wrong and the meteor exploded, transforming Chris into a burning, mindless supercharged hulk. The accident also transformed his teenaged daughter Christie into Ultragirl.

megaton7With Matt “Megaton” Scott’s help, they stopped Christie’s dad. With the meteor destroyed, Ultraman discovered that there was no way for him to recharge his depleted powers except for draining it from Christie and possibly killing her in the process. Instructing Megaton to tell Christie that he had exploded so she wouldn’t try to find him, Ultraman retired and left to avoid the uncontrollable temptation to charge up.

Meg_BillWThe story began in Megaton #1 and concluded in #7. Butch Guice returned to provide the cover and the interior art was provided by Gary Thomas Washington. A bonus was a nice inside front cover illo by Bill Willingham and Rich Rankin. Ultragirl dealt with the “death” of her father and her infatuation with Megaton in the back-up story in issue 7, which was drawn by John Thompson who became a good friend and a big part of the Megaton gang during those last days and months when expansion to color and multiple books looked like a reality.

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Ultraman and Daughter

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Ultraman and Crusader were originally conceived to be fairly generic versions of Superman and Batman-type heroes for Megaton Comics in 1981 or so. I wasn’t interested in telling their stories at that point, only those of their successors, Ultragirl and, wait a minute. Sentinel died in his first appearance, murdered by the Headhunter who turned out to be his “brother” and predecessor as the Crusader’s sidekick Sparky. Maybe the idea was for Crusader to come out of retirement? I don’t recall what I was thinking 30 years ago.

Ultragirl was another story though. The plan was for her to be a major part of the new universe, even though she didn’t reappear until issue #’s 7 and 8 where she appeared in the main Megaton stories as well as the back-ups. UmanSketch1

Crusader existed before the concept of the Megaton universe did. I have a few drawings and covers featuring the character that were inked and colored with markers from sometime in the early to mid 1970’s. Ultraman, though, was created for Megaton. In fact, these early sketches I’m printing here today are not too different from the earliest Megaton sketches: the mohawk, the goofy cape, all were considered for both characters and used for neither.

UmanSketch2Since the actual star was to be Ultragirl, I figured maybe it would be best to design her costume first and then backtrack to her dad’s uniform. I’m running a few of my original designs for her, and eventually (being a major Dave Cockrum fan) decided to go for a Phoenix-y look. A new generation of hero, remember?

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Butch Guice, the artist on that first Ultragirl story refined my design and came up with a great look for Christie Kelly’s alter-ego. I merely requested that she be a little younger and lose the eye make-up. We backed up her dad’s look to more of a classic Superman style (which you can see in my previous blog) and that was pretty much it for the 1980’s.

I apologize for so many of my crummy sketches here today. Next time or two I promise much prettier art by Butch Guice, John Thompson and Rob Liefeld.

The Older Generation

ultraman_butch I think I’ve mentioned before that my Megaton book was going to feature a new generation of super heroes. Back in 1981, time didn’t really pass in comic books. Dick Grayson was still Robin, having only aged from the Boy Wonder into the Teen Wonder in 30 years. Only on DC’s Earth 2 were sidekicks allowed to grow up, but even there Dick Grayson was still Robin, albeit in some very ugly new uniforms. In DC’s imaginary stories, readers were treated to the adventures of Superman and Batman’s Super-Sons during the 1970’s.

In creating a second generation of heroes, it stands to reason that there had to be a first generation and they were represented in Megaton #1 by Ultraman and the Crusader. Each of them appeared in costume for only a single panel that issue. Crusader showed up once again in his civilian guise in a second panel and only reappeared a few years later in the Megaton Explosion, our who’s who promo book. (You can download the Explosion here on my Megaton website: http://megatoncomics.com/Megaton/Megaton_Explosion.html)Crusader

Ultraman was all over the first three pages of his story (art by Butch Guice and James Cassara)in his real identity of astronaut turned hero Christopher Kelly before he blew up. Neither were the stars of their first appearances. Crusader showed up in flashback in the Sentinel story, which featured his two grown-up sidekicks (Sentinel and Headhunter) battling each other. Ultraman was there to pass on his powers to his daughter Christie, aka Ultragirl, in her origin story. Unfortunately for Christie, her story didn’t resume until Megaton #’s 7 and 8 a few years later (and Megaton X-Mas a few years after that). Her dad did guest star in #7 and showed up in the Explosion too.

Crusader_FrankFxAnd that was it for those two old-timers, until Chris Ecker, Ed DeGeorge and I resurrected them as the stars of Big Bang Comics. Ultraman underwent a slight name change to Ultiman and the Crusader was transformed into the Knight Watchman. (The Watchman’s metamorphosis was already told in an earlier blog). At Big Bang they were the stars. At Megaton, they were the back story. I don’t recall any plans to tell any Ultiman retro adventures in Megaton, although the Crusader would have reappeared to fight Headhunter and may have stuck around for a while.

I have a number of my own sad, swiped drawings of the Crusader from the late 70’s and early 80’s. To the right is Frank Fosco’s take on one of them from 1982. Chris Ecker, who drew that first story, must have designed the Sentinel but I have a few of my own designs for the character that became Headhunter.

Very few early Ultraman sketches exist, at least in my hoarding piles (and I never throw anything out) but I’ll show you a few of them next time

Midway City’s Twilight Crusader

Just a short note to go with a great new Knight Watchman piece by C.B. Burk to accompany his recent Galahad story “Lady In Waiting”. I’ve been fighting a bit of pneumonia this week and haven’t felt like doing much of anything, but hope to be back in form next week.

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Lady in Waiting – Page 10

Submitted for your approval: the tenth and final page of “Lady In Waiting” by Gary Carlson (writer) and C.B. Burk (artist). Plotted and drawn many many moons ago, but dusted off, dialogued and colored very recently. Let me know if  you’ve enjoyed it and would like to see more stories from the BB vault.

Down below it is another preliminary piece by C.B. of the cast of this epic tale:

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Pictured below are Gwen, Shutterbug, Mayor John Princeton, reporter Debbie Dorn and the Knight Watchman’s behind-the-scenes other junior partner, Monroe Willis.

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