A long-awaited delivery show up in the mail this morning, my personally commissioned piece from Michael Golden! I met him last year at Austin’s WizWorld. Most people know him more for Marvel’s GI Joe comic and as the co-creator of X-Man Rogue.
For me, Golden was co-creator of The Micronauts as a comic. The little Japanese-based action figures were Americanized by Mego to compete with the Star Wars craze; allegedly Lucas approached Mego first before going to Kenner. Bill Mantlo was the first run’s original author plus the series’ inspiration when his son received some Micronauts toys for Christmas in 1977. The toys were rather brittle so this added to their struggle yet the comic was the best licensing spinoff Marvel ever took during my childhood. Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek usually just mimicked what I already had seen. Stuff derived from toys was even weaker: I wasted my comic-book opportunity on Shogun Warriors once. The Micronauts followed its own space opera without being hemmed in by the toy line. For example, Acroyer was an individual character and ally of Commander Rann. With the toys, Acroyer was a race and the enemies of the Micronauts. Mantlo and Golden took the mythos further when the characters crossed over into the regular Marvel Universe several times. They encountered Man-Thing (Marvel’s Swamp Thing), the Fantastic Four, Dr. Doom and HYDRA. Another mainstay for Marvel was the creation of Captain Universe, a deus ex machina type/solution that appears occasionally, usually when the world is at stake. I think Joss Whedon borrowed it to solve his crappy ending to Serenity.
Back to meeting Michael. It was a thrill. We got to reminiscing about The Micronauts. This led to the commission. When he asked me who I wanted, I requested his favorite character. Being a clever artist, he said it’s good business to deliver what the client wants. I said, OK, the main hero Commander (and Prince) Arcturus Rann, the rightful monarch of Homeworld. He’s also modeled after the Space Glider toy. We agreed on the size or perspective (upper half). Then I stated the rest was up to him because he’s the artist, I don’t want to micromanage; a lesson I learned from my GDW days, let the artistic people do their thing. My friend Steve Bryant taught me well as he pointed out how numerous writers/editors often describe a five-minute shot/pan from a film. Just give the gist and let the artists the freedom on the details. They don’t tell me what the write, punctuate and format.
Now there was a waiting game which gave me some concern. Michael is a pretty busy guy. He teaches, tours and does work for others. We did a get a tad worried. Somara’s Internet research had negative comments. I took it with a grain of salt, often the Internet is full of complaints or praise, very little in between. I consulted with my comic book store since they had a Golden piece on display. Their advice was wait it out. What they knew was somebody rushed him and got unsatisfactory work. I’m glad I adhered to Rogue Gallery’s wisdom.
What’s next? Somara will get this matted and framed I figure. It’ll be fantastic.