above: the cover to Micronauts #5 by Chris Bachalo

Dana Moreshead, who is working as a creative consultant to Ken Abram's Character Vision on the Micronauts property, has passed along this nice tidbit of info concerning the recent rumors of the cancellation of the Micronauts comic book: (as of 5/29/04):

"By all accounts, there will be a Micronauts #5. After issue 3, Devil's Due is taking a month to get caught up on the schedule. So, issue 4 will be out the following month, and 5 after that." Along with this good news, Dana has scored a coup with securing a cover for #5 by the one and only Chris Bachalo (of X-Men, Captain America and Steampunk fame).

So how did Dana get Chris on the cover? "Sigh…I begged him. (laughter) To me, Chris has always been in a bizarre way the heir-apparent to Michael Golden. I've known Chris since 1993 -- he did a lot of work for me when I was at Marvel" (from about 1990 to 1999 Dana worked at Marvel as head of creative services) "so Chris and I have worked together forever. I had been bugging Devil's Due to get some "star power" on the covers to help bump sales. The minute we got the green light I called Chris. Bachalo was a big fan of the old Micronauts, especially the Golden covers. I told him he could do "whatever he wanted." It's Chris…he's doing us a favor…and I lucked out."

Pat's leaving the series seemed to come as somewhat of a shock to fans. "Pat's departure from the series was a disappointment to us. His work on issue 3 was/is spectacular, and in fact, we asked him to stay through the end of the current story arc (issue 6). However, we completely understand his rationale for leaving and wish him the very best on his new endeavor. I've only seen 8 or 9 pages of issue #4, and I know they're running late…so that's all I know."

Pat's input to the new series seemed to breathe new life into the book, and some of his new character designs, such as the "Bug"-like "Kitokk" character in issue #3 were a pleasant surprise. "I know he (Pat) originally wanted to re-design the cast almost entirely, but Devil's Due and Character Vision wanted to maintain a sense of continuity- so we wanted to keep what was there, but wanted Pat to feel comfortable…"

 
"At the time what we had been suggesting was, as opportunities arose, Pat would adjust the character designs. So if there was a logic to the adjustment…I know that there's one robot in particular whose gonna undergo a major overhaul…he's gonna get damaged…" and when asked to expand a bit further on who that would be, Dana had only this to say "I'm not gonna tell you! (laughter) "Robot X" gets damaged and re-built…when he comes back it'll probably be closer to the original toy design." Which should please those fans that thought that the toys weren't getting the proper coverage.

And while he couldn't really comment on the movie aspect of the property, Dana has said that "I know that the people who have optioned it are excited about it, and I know they did a TON of research and reference gathering." One person being Dal Walton of Emmett/Furla Films, who is also working as consultant to the movie in conjunction with Gale Anne Hurd's Valhalla Motion Pictures, "I had to find out what the eBay screen names were for the production company, so I wouldn't bid against the crew working on the movie!"

 

So is Dana also buying Micronauts off eBay? "Yes, I have in fact been filling in the gaps. Here's my tragic Micronauts story; I had a table, a rickety old card table in my parent's basement where all my Micronauts toys were, and Metal Men, and Star Wars, etc, but my sister…my younger sister…and her friend…goofin' around in the basement… knocked over the table, and most of my Micronauts went the way of the Dodo. Fists went flying, feet were never found…" As Dana's voice began to trail off, I knew that the interview had come to somewhat of an end, "The Astrostation survived, one Time Traveler survived, and I still have the head, arm, sword and Spy-bird of a green Acroyear."

 
So, as of now, there are still high hopes for the Micronauts series. But with still no word from Devil's Due, the future of the Micronauts is still a cloudy one.
 

images © 2004 Pat Broderick and Devil's Due respectively