Sunday, February 25, 2024

The Updated Don Simpson Megaton Man Checklist 2024

Update 2024Most of the Megaton Man and Bizarre Heroes material listed below will be collected in The Complete Megaton Man Universe, Volume I: The 1980s (mostly the Kitchen Sink Press Megaton Man comics) and Volume II: The 1990s (the Fiasco Comics Bizarre Heroes and later ImageMegaton Man issues except the team-ups), coming in 2024 and 2025 from Fantagraphics Underground.

Megaton Man #1-10 (Kitchen Sink, November 1984-June 1986)
The Return of Megaton Man #1-3 (Kitchen Sink, July-September 1988)
Megaton Man Meets the Uncategorizable X+Thems #1 (Kitchen Sink, April 1989)
Yarn Man #1 (Kitchen Sink, October 1989)
Bizarre Heroes #1 (Kitchen Sink, May 1990) (no Megaton Man appearance, but ties in later)
Pteranoman #1 (Kitchen Sink, August 1990)
Savage Dragon vs. the Savage Megaton Man #1 (Image, March 1993)
Splitting Image #2 (Image Comics, April 1993) (cameo)
The normalman/Megaton Man Special #1 (Image, June 1994)
Don Simpson's Bizarre Heroes #0–8 (Fiasco Comics, May-December 1994)
Bizarre Heroes #9–17 (Fiasco Comics, February 1995-July, 1996)*
Megaton Man: Hardcopy #1 & 2 (Image, 1999)
Megaton Man: Bombshell #1 (Image, 1999
*Bizarre Heroes #16 and #17 are alternately titled Megaton Man vs. Forbidden Frankenstein #1 and Megaton Man #0

Further appearances:

Megaton Man Daily Reruns (some episodes reprinted or repurposed into Hardcopy and Bombshell)
Asylum (reprinted and repurposed in Hardcopy #2 and Bombshell #1)
Megaton Man blog: The Atomic Aftermath (and more)
Red Anvil Comics' War of the Independents #1 (2013) and #4 (2014)
CBLDF Liberty Annual 2010 ("Megaton Man and the Liberty Alliance in: 'Columbia Rising!'")
X-Amount of Comics: 1963 (WhenElse?!) Annual (Fantagraphics Underground, 2023) (cameo)

The Simpson Scholarship of Steve Replogle

This list was initially compiled by Megaton Man completist Steve Replogle, who had contacted me requesting information on compiling a complete and exhaustive list of every single Megaton Man comic book appearance of the past three decades, so as to organize his own collection.

An example of the late 90s Megaton Man Weekly Serial

Steve went on to provide further details, below:

Steve Replogle

Further Frenzied and Fanatical Footnoting for Megaton Man

The Megaton Man Weekly Serial is now only available as Don Simpson's Megaton Man Daily Reruns at http://www.worldfamouscomics.com/megatonman. It offers an Archives page that lists episodes 1 - 103 with titles, but not later episodes.

Publication dates given below are from the Comicbookdb.com.

Hardcopy #1, February 1999
Contains online episodes 1 - 55

Hardcopy #2, April 1999 
Pages 1 - 9: Megaton Man Weekly Serial episodes 56-71
Pages 10 - 12: three new pages of Gower Goose's radio show comic strips
Pages 13 - 22a: Megaton Man Weekly Serial episodes 72-89
Pages 22b - 28: new material

Bombshell #1, July 1999
Collects the Asylum installments with additional, new material.

Savage Dragon Back-ups (Erik Larsen, Image Comics)
Courtesy of Nicolás Orizaga:
#52, August 1998 - (episodes 90-93, Gower Goose interviews Megaton Man)
#53, September 1998 - (episodes 94-97, “Untold Tales of Megaton Lad”)
#54, October 1998 - (episodes 98-101, the return of “Slagg Heep!”, who just wants to read comic books)
#55, November 1998 - (episodes 102-105, “Irving Lives!”, the living cactus attacks Yarn Man, then fights Slagg Heep)
#56, December 1998 - (episodes 106-109, “Action Figure Collectors From Mars” features the return of the Partyers From Mars)
#57, January 1999 - (episodes 110-113, “The Slick vs The Mooncat”)
#58, February 1999 - (episodes 114-117, “Megaton Man Meets The Slick”)
#59, March 1999 - (episodes 118-121, The Slick joins up and is “Along For The Ride”)
#60, April 1999 - (episodes 122-125, “Toujours Le Scandale!”, MM is interviewed by Gower Goose about his alleged affair with his underage classmate Nikki)
#61, May 1999 - * (episodes 130-133, Megaton Man defeats the Lava monster and Earth Mother drives up and drops off Simon Phloog)
#62, June 1999 - * (episodes 126-129, “Molten Magma Regrets”, MM fights a lava creature while dodging questions about his personal life)
#63, June 1999 - (episodes 134-137, Preston leaves with Earth Mother while elsewhere Bad Guy reveals his plan to Unleash)
The following issues feature newly created pages in the traditional comic-book format:
#64, July 1999 - (The Slick departs and Gower asks to interview Simon)
#65, August 1999 - (“Casey At The Bat” part one)
#66, August 1999 - (“Casey At The Bat” part two)
#67, September 1999 - (“Father and Son Day”, the gang enjoys a picnic and finally makes it to the comic con)
“The Comicon on the Edge of Forever” serial begins:
#68, October 1999 - (Jungle Gorilla sells the old comic books for gas money, while Megaton Man finds Harding Edison’s unpublished anthology has been turned into a VR game)
#69, November 1999 - (Paul Nabisco shuns the industry and his fans)
#70, December 1999 - (Paul Nabisco’s secret origin is revealed!)
#71, January 2000 - (Megaton Man’s costume begins to deteriorate and Paul Nabisco incites his loyal fans to start a riot)
#72, February 2000 - (Simon is crushed by a giant balloon during the riot)
#73, March 2000 - (Unleash and his villainous army attacks!)
#74, April 2000 - (Megaton Man gets a new costume for the new millennium)
#76, June 2000 - (The Bizarre Heroes fight the villains and X-Ray Boy gets his first kiss!)
#77, July 2000 - (‘Saur vs Jungle Gorilla, Blue Web vs Kozmik Kat)
#78, August 2000 - (“Bombs Away!”, Bombshell vs Yarn Man)
#79, September 2000 - (“Wings Of Desire”, the heroes defeat the villains)
#80, October 2000 - (“The Ol’ Switcheroo” features Phantom Jungle Girl and Cowboy Gorilla returning to their own bodies)
#86, April 2001 - (“Unmasked, Unleashed!” Megaton Man reveals his new costume and confronts Bad Guy, while Unleash quits and heads back to Project Mainstream)
#87, May 2001 (“Megs Cops Out!”, Megaton Man quells the riot, and Simon discovers his father’s costume was not made for the year 2000, so he resets his goggles (and the timeline?) to 1984 and Megaton Man returns to his old self!)
Asylum - Maximum Press

#7 (August 1996)  - "Megaton Man vs. Unleash"
#8 (September 1996) - "Megaton Man vs. Bombshell" 
#11 (Jan/Feb 1997) - "After Megaton Man"
Asylum episodes are gathered in Megaton Man: Bombshell #1

The CBLDF Presents Liberty Annual, October 2010
Megaton Man and the Liberty Alliance in: ''Columbia Rising!'' Introduces the character Miss Columbia.
 
One-Pagers for Hero Illustrated
There are several; exact issues are unknown. Three were reprinted in The Apocalypse Affiliation trade paperback; all of them will be collected in The Complete Megaton Man Universe Volume II (2025).
A. The Blue Web
B. YarnBlood
C. Untitled (MM relaxing by the pool with Stella and Yarn Man)
Graphic Novel Collections
Megaton Man: Volume I (Princeton WI: Kitchen Sink Press, 1990). Collects Megaton Man #1-4 in black and white, with alternate covers and minor art variations.

Don Simpson’s Megaton Man, introduction by Al Franken (New York: ibooks/Simon & Schuster, 2004). Reprints Megaton Man #1-5 in color, with recolored covers and newly colored inside covers and additional material.

Bizarre Heroes: The Apocalypse Affiliation (Pittsburgh: Fiasco Comics, Inc., 1995). Reprints Don Simpson's Bizarre Heroes #1-5, with additional material.
 
Border Worlds (Mineola NY: Dover Publications Inc., 2017). Reprints Border Worlds #1-7 and Border Worlds: Marooned #1, with a new 30-page conclusion.
Splitting Image 80-Page Giant (featuring normalman vs. Megaton Man with Jim Valentino, Larry Marder, Bob Burden, et al) (Berkeley: Image Comics, 2017). Reprints Splitting Image #1-2 and The normalman vs. Megaton Man Special.
Megaton Man: Return to Megatropolis (completed spring 2016; coloring in production). Original material. No publication plans as of spring 2018. __________
Anyone with further info, please comment! I'm too busy drawing new stuff! Best, Don

This is an update of a 2016 blog post compiled by Steve Replogle! Revised in 2018, 2024.

1 comment:

  1. "Darn it all!" sayeth an inconsolable Yarn Man, "Will Megaton Man: Return to Megalopolis" EVER see the light of day? Yer KILLIN' me, Smalls!"
    Seriously Don, the world needs more Megaton Man!

    ReplyDelete