"The definitive story has not been done...yet."
(Update! as of 10-09-03: The Micronauts live on at Devil's Due! Go to Newsarama to see the details)

 
In early September of 2003, some discussion about the Micronauts comic book series began at the Comic Book Recourses website. A promotional image produced by the old Marvel artist on the series Pat Broderick (see below) was posted by and quickly removed by the reps at Future Comics - a small independent publisher. Some further discussion about this was continued on the Comicon website, in the "Panels" section under the Micronauts and Broderick thread. It seems that Pat Broderick had shown some serious interest in taking over the book. At the time he worked for Future and it looked as if there was a "Future" for the Micronauts at last, after Devil's Due announced that the series was ending around issue #12. Pat has spoken out about the exact details of what was happening, but now he has released these beautifully penciled pages showing a very different, but familiar, take on the comic. So what exactly is going on with the Micronauts now?
 
 

ISO : So Future decided not to grab the Micronauts property for reasons already explained, but the color artwork that was pulled from the Comic Resources page was obviously produced before this decision. Were you commissioned to do this by Future, or did you come up with this on your own?

Pat Broderick : "Yes the color illustration you're referring to was produced before it was decided that Future was not able to put together the resources to publish the series. Was it a commissioned piece? No, it was a "requested" piece. Future did not pay for that art and has no legal claim to it. Nor have they returned it."

ISO : What is the story behind the characters drawn? They look to be a combo of the old Marvel ones, and the new Devil's Due ones.

PB : "I'm glad that you caught the look as a combination of the two series. Keep in mind that at the time I had only read the Karza issues, and as of this date I'm still waiting to collect the whole series from Image to read. The look of the characters in the art reflects what I remember of the first run. While making enough changes so that they would still be new. Also in that scene are some real people that I know. The man and his dog are actually Bob (Layton) and his wife's dog Sherman. Bob often brought his two Dogs to work with him. The Girl with the collar is actually an animation student of mine, Midori Kimura in Tampa. I'm a teacher at the Academy of Design and Technology for the animation department and Midori's in my storyboard class. She's a very sweet, talented, young women which always dressed in a more radical fashion and I had intended to design a main character after her. But what was most important about that picture was what the scene told to the viewer. That here are very advanced miniature beings caught in a very contemporary situation on our world unnoticed by everyone except the dog."
 

PB : "I redesigned the look of these characters hoping to catch the new look. I only had the web sites for reference material and had found a new Space Glider pick on one of Bryan Wilkinson's sites and he was the basis for the Captain. Acroyear is and always will be Acroyear, this one's based off of my memories and also changed enough to be new. The "Bug" character...this is totally new with four arms and grass hopper legs and wings, antenna, and mandibles. The female characters' costume is new. Also I asked for that color scheme to tickle the memories."

ISO : What was your reasoning for doing these pages?

PB : "The reason that I penciled these was to kick start my brain."

 
 
 
ISO : Were you commissioned to pencil these four pages, or was this another idea that you came up with on your own? How long did it take you to produce these?

PB : "The four pages your referring too were done from the first plot I did for the series. But commissioned? No. And it took me about two days to draw them."

ISO : Are these the old Marvel characters shown?

PB : "No these are not the Marvel characters. All of the hardware are from the toys, not the comic."
  

ISO : Did you plot this out yourself, and what is the story idea you had for these four pages? What else could have happened following this story line, had anything else been planned out?

PB : "Well, actually I did plot the first story, But it had not been accepted by Bob (Layton) which I feel was another of the stalling techniques he was using at the time. But as to what was happening in those pages is basically this; The explorer who was one of Karza's brothers was awakened from deep sleep by Biotron as they entered Karza space. It had been 7 or so years since they had left their homeworld and was on their return when Biotron had detected from the ships sensors that the world they were approaching had been totally wiped clean of all life. And this was the central world of the insect hive empire. So as they investigate they meet "Bug" one of the few survivors who had been off planet at the time of its destruction. "Bug," seeing the familiar design of the ship would later attack the commander and would have killed him right there in the ruins of his world if not for Biotron. The commander learns of his brothers rise to power from the insect. That pretty much about covers the first eight pages."

ISO : Are you hoping Devil's Due will continue with the Micronauts with you on board or do you hope Marvel will start them up again?

PB : "This questions hard to answer for this reason. Negotiations are about to be completed with a publisher. A comic book publisher whose name I can't reveal. I've already spoken with both the creative director, the editor and writer. And their all very excited. The Micronauts will be a collaborative effort and the writer is really damn good. And funny too. "

  
 

ISO : Why do you like working on the Micronauts project so much?

PB : "As for why I love these characters so much is because of many reasons. First it was because I'm a huge Mike Golden fan and at the time I was glad to be able to enjoy his work on a monthly basis. Prior to the Micronauts, Mike's work bounced around a lot at DC . And I was looking for steady work from Marvel . Louise Simonson called and offered the book after the Chakin six issue run. And I jumped. After the first issue I was in love so I really poured my heart into the series and the fans responded. Bill Mantlo keep coming up with some really great stories. Odd Jon, the McDonalds story, Miracle Man and the junkyard, Shield and Hydra at Disney World, entering Commander Ranns' mind and fighting Nightmare. It was just a great time for me."

ISO : What did you think of the Devil's Due story compared to the one you worked on with Bill Mantlo in the 80's?

PB : "I won't compare the two together. They were both individual efforts by some very talented people."

ISO : What do you think the definitive Micronauts story is?

PB : "The definitive story has not been done...yet."

 

ISO : Any final thoughts on the whole thing?

PB : "My thoughts are this, I have got to be the luckiest artist in the business today. I have been in this business for a long time. When the whole thing melted back in the nineties I was lucky enough to have made a clean transition into advertising. Then along the way preproduction concept work for film and animation. Now I'm able to bring what I've learned back to comics. A more cinematic approach storytelling and a clearer understanding of what a storyteller does."

Inner Space Online would like to thank Pat for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk to us. The new series by Devil's Due has just been announced, and it looks to get rolling in early 2004 with Dan Jolley writing again, and on art...Mr. Pat Broderick!

 
All images copyright © 2003 Pat Broderick.