MEGGA PARTNERS UP WITH REDLEAFCOMICS ! Follow the adventures of the Sea Serpent, Mind Mistress and many more in a six pages spread appearance in ALL CANADIAN COMICS #4 On sale HERE
PART 2 COMING SOON
The Megga History
Megga is an early creation from the team of “Paul Beale” and “Jim Hachey”. Originally the characters and several others were brought to life on paper by Paul Beale who had made comics for years but never published them. In the mid 80’s he met Jim who was preparing to put out his first issue of “Destructors of Evil”, a local fanzine. Jim convinced me to let him re-work some of my heroes and after picking the ones he thought had potential he showed me some sketches.
After some adjustments at Paul's request six of the re-worked Super Heroes formed the original cast of “Megga”. They were: – Stunray [John Cassidine] the gritty and resourceful Bounty Hunter - Red Leaf [hotel millionaire Frank Stone]the leader and expert fighter – Young Crusader [Frank’s younger brother Brad Stone]another martial artist – The super strong Sea Serpent [half man, half shark who’s real identity is unknown even to him] - Knightshade master of darkness and National hero of the underground city, state of “Sanfra”[ who has no known alias] and - Mind Mistress [Sea Serpent’s wife Marilyn Clark] who can warp people’s minds into seeing anything she wishes them to see. Later after Knightshade was forced to leave the group and return to Sanfra [The sun’s rays were killing him] Barry Kincade’s Gaurdstar [Micheal DeGaul] joined.
For 14 episodes this team defeated every threat they faced, even arch nemesis “Brandon Price”. Megga’s best known member “Stunray” also appeared in “Bounty Hunters” stories with John Barry Kincade’s “Dark Wolf” character [He became Wolf when Barry discovered the name had already been used]. These stories were featured in Barry’s “Sorcerer Stone Presents” fanzine and were interwoven into the chronology of the Destructors universe.
By the late 1980’s Jim’s now very popular comic had run its course and for a time Megga’s characters seemed to be gone or inactive. Paul worked in a fanzine at that time called Terminal Velocity which was published by Jeff Nearing a friend from my Destructors days. He worked with a few other characters at first but then decide it was time to bring back Stunray and company. Paul decided that he would write it in such a way that it was clear that the group had continued to fight evil during their hiatus from comics. That is until the fateful day that a mind controller named Hawke took over “Gaurdstar” and attacked the team killing “Red Leaf” and injuring others. This is where Paul picked up the story as “Stunray”, who had stopped the powerful “Gaurdstar” once before was hunting him and the person controlling him in “Stunray the Hunted”.
By the time he finished this 3 part mini – series Paul was publishing his own comic, “Third Wave”. He was working on a new story called “Black Death Assassin” for the book when a local creator and friend named Bob Thomas asked if he could contribute a “Megga” based series Called “Megga Files”. His idea was to take the broken remains of my old group and add in new younger heroes to form a new “Megga”. Paul would co- plot this series but Bob was the writer and Paul loved what he did with it. Paul Beale's old cast plus a new hero he had created named “Gem Stone” would mix in with his new breed of Canadian Ultra heroes. “Blackball and Wraith”, “Crossbow” and “Silverbird” breathed new life into a series he had left for dead. Back too was “Brandon Price” too although he now went by “Dominion”.
After six issues “Third Wave” was finished but along came “Mason Hal Hilden” with is book “Spartan Comics” and my “Megga” characters made a brief comeback. By now it was the latter half of the 1990’s and the local scene went through some lean years. For “Stunray” that meant only a brief cameo in a book he did called “Release Comics”. Always in the back of Paul's head however was the next phase of the Megga characters’ lives. That’s when Mason [Hal] who had moved away dropped back into mine and Jim’s life. He had hooked up with an online [mostly] professional comic book company named “Red Leaf Comics” and they were looking for more Maritime creators. Jim along with talented creators like “Mike McKay” and the late “Tim Fallon” [a legend in the local scene] had published a first rate comic throughout the Maritimes called “Manga Ganda” and “Red Leaf” reprinted it internationally. Paul had a story in that comic and he was also working with Jim on a “Supernatural Agents” story. Paul emailed Publisher “John Helmer” that he had some stories he might like and then sent them to him.
After telling him he wanted all three of them he offered Paul a chance to edit one of their titles, “All Canadian Comics”. He jumped at the chance and over time found myself creating and editing two more books, “All action Hero” and “All Christian” with his new team [which includes “Jenny Godin” founder of this website]. Along with some newer entities Paul revived some of my old titles including of course “Megga” and “Stunray”. Wanting to bring his new and international readers back to where it all began he decided to re – do Megga’s origin. Paul's old art from 1985 was not good enough for this level so he enlisted the very talented Miss Godin and even added a character of hers, “Lazer”.
Part one of this two part story appears in issue 4 of All Canadian and the second half will soon be in issue#5. As for Paul, he and his All Comics team have branched out into other companies like “Pilot Studios” , “Advent comics” and “Charlton Neo”. The latter is an especially exciting venture as Jenny,” Donnie Willman” and “Mike Plourde” collaborated on a story [Freddie] that revived a Charlton Comics character that had not been in print since the early 1960’s. It also places us in an issue with comic book legends like Paul Kupperberg [Archie, Supergirl] and Roger McKenzie [Dare Devil, Battlestar Glactica] to name just a few. Exciting times for Paul as a writer but no matter how many other characters he creates or work with [and there are many]he seems to always come back to a paranoid orphan [Stunray] and his only true family [Megga].