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Cover: Butch Guice & Ken McFarlane

Megaton #1

Name: Megaton #1
Brand: Megaton Comics
Availability: InStock

Nov 1983 · Megaton Comics · 2.95 USD

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★ 1st appearance — Ethrian

About this Issue

Megaton #1 (November 1983) is the founding artifact of Gary Carlson's self-published black-and-white anthology imprint, and its significance radiates outward far beyond its modest independent origins. It contains what Key Collector Comics and the Grand Comics Database both confirm as Erik Larsen's first professionally published comic-book work — his fanzine Graphic Fantasy predated it, but Megaton #1 was his commercial debut — as well as the first appearances of Vanguard Thakka, Megaton (Matthew Scott), Berzerker (Alexander Kirk), The Sentinel (Bobby Thorpe), Ethrian (Galien), Ultragirl (Christine Kelly), and the robot companion Wally. The creative alumni who passed through Megaton's pages went on to help found Image Comics, with Rob Liefeld later calling Carlson 'the grandfather of Image Comics' — a title that traces directly back to this first issue's roster of emerging talent. Its place in the independent comics movement of the 1980s is concrete: it was among the early mainstream black-and-white anthologies that demonstrated creator-owned superhero publishing was viable outside Marvel and DC.

Contains 9 stories

Sins Of The Father (part 1)

7 pp · Superhero

Inks ? [as Oddjob]Letters ? [as Oddjob]

The City At Sunrise

4 pp · Superhero

The Pulsar Project (Part 1)

10 pp · Superhero

Berzerker

8 pp · Superhero

Vanguard (Part 1)

7 pp · Superhero

Cosmo VII (antagonist, destroyed)

Sidekicks (Part 1)

7 pp · Superhero

Night Of The Skull

4 pp · Superhero

The Skull

Ethrian (Part 1)

8 pp · Superhero

The Summoning! (Part 1)

8 pp · Superhero

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $21

CGC 9.8 · 23 in census $463*

CGC 9.6 · 38 in census $134

CGC 9.4 · 24 in census $99

CGC 9.2 · 21 in census $78

CGC 9.0 · 13 in census $68*

CGC 8.5 · 8 in census $64

Show all 11 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 5 in census $51*

CGC 7.5 · 6 in census $45*

CGC 7.0 · 1 in census $39*

CGC 6.5 · 1 in census $39

CGC 6.0 · 1 in census $33*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

This exact issue on ebay

CGC 9.8 ▾ $600–$870 2 listings

CGC 9.8 $600 CGC 9.8 $870

CGC 9.6 ▾ $200–$225 2 listings

CGC 9.6 $200 CGC 9.6 $225

CGC 9.4 $284 1 listing CGC 9 $120 1 listing CBCS 9.8 $800 1 listing Raw — FN $144 1 listing

Raw / ungraded ▾ $75–$121 2 listings

Raw / ungraded $75 Raw / ungraded $120.57

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History

Gary Carlson conceived and self-funded Megaton Comics in the early 1980s, writing and editing the anthology himself and assembling a wide roster of contributors for the debut issue. The cover was penciled by Butch Guice with inks by Ken McFarlane, and the interior featured an unusually large creative team — Carlson, John Cosgriff, Erik Larsen, Gene Day, Mike Gustovich, Ken Landgraf, Chris Ecker, Ralph Cabrera, Frank Fosco, Dan Reed, and Sam DeLaRosa among them — with nine distinct stories launching simultaneously. Many of the original contributors left after the first issue to take assignments at Marvel or DC, causing severe scheduling delays and the eventual bankruptcy of Megaton Comics by 1987 after only eight total issues; the Vanguard feature, co-created by Carlson and Larsen, was reprinted — with colors added — in Image's Vanguard #1 (1993) and again in Savage Dragon #182 (2012), and in 2023 Image Comics published the Megaton Archives trade paperback collecting all eight issues to mark the series' 40th anniversary.

Trivia · 8 facts

Published November 1983 by Megaton Comics; 64 pages, black and white; edited and co-written by Gary Carlson.
First professionally published comic-book work by Erik Larsen (his prior Graphic Fantasy appearances were self-published fanzine work).
First appearances of Megaton (Matthew Scott), Vanguard Thakka, Wally, Berzerker (Alexander Kirk), The Sentinel (Bobby Thorpe), Ethrian (Galien), and Ultragirl (Christine Kelly) — seven characters debuting in a single issue.
The Ultragirl story — in which Christine Kelly gains her father Ultraman's powers after a tragic accident — was only published in this issue, though the character continued to appear in the Megaton title story.
Cover penciled by Butch Guice (credited as Jackson Guice on some issues) with interior contributions from Gene Day, Mike Gustovich, Frank Fosco, Dan Reed, Chris Ecker, Ralph Cabrera, Ken Landgraf, Sam DeLaRosa, and John Cosgriff, among others.
The Vanguard story from this issue was later reprinted (with colors added) in Vanguard #1 (Image Comics, October 1993) and again in Savage Dragon #182 (Image Comics, October 2012).
The full eight-issue run of Megaton Comics was collected in the Megaton Archives trade paperback, published by Image Comics in 2023 to mark the series' 40th anniversary, scanned from original art and film negatives.
Rob Liefeld has publicly called Gary Carlson 'the grandfather of Image Comics,' citing Megaton as the first home for both Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon and Liefeld's own Youngblood characters.