Mr. Nuclear!!!
1980



Mr. Nuclear is the oldest character I have created that is still in use. He originated circa 1977-78.

I had just seen David Lynch's "Eraserhead" (1977) for the first time and I was in awe of this B&W, surreal and nightmarish like reality of a film. It was also at about this time I saw the short film "Un Chien Andalou" (1928) by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali. Another B&W exercise in the surreal -- in fact, this was the first ever surreal film! I was so inspired, I wanted to make a short sureal film of my own! Of course, being a college student, I was on a limited budget. My film's scenario was the interactions between a group of strange looking characters in a very surreal depiction of what would be an "ordinary" day for them. For these characters I recruited friends and collected any weird masks or clothes I could find. However, I still needed a main character!

I had a tuxedo coat with tales (which my father was married in) and an old gas mask and helmet that I had bought from an army surplus store. (I often bought all sorts of odd things from these type stores because they looked weird or ominous to me, like grenade dummies and mortar casings, etc.) I thought "Black and white film", so decided to paint the helmet black. Because I was into David Bowie at the time, I painted a lightning bolt on the helmet like the "Aladdin Sane" cover. From the gas mask, a lightning bolt helmet, and a tux, I created the character "Mr. Nuclear"!

I went on to make that film, along with two other live action films, and two animated shorts with the Mr. Nuclear character. Mr. Nuclear became my alter ego, appearing here and there in other films, as a radio voice, as an emcee at events, and now finally here, in his very own serial comic, "Mr. Nuclear"!

In 1982 I was working at Heritage Games, which created and distributed role playing and table games, some of which used metal miniatures that the company produced. One of the shop employees, who was a student at a local community college and a game master at some events, saw some of my comics. He was start a new monthly newsletter called "Richland Gamer" for the gamers, and asked if I'd be interested in doing a comic for the magazine. I said "sure", and I had the perfect candidate, MR. NUCLEAR! He was a natural for sci-fi/fantasy fans, plus I had already made metal miniatures of him and other comic characters I had created that some of the gamers had seen and admired. In fact, I have metal miniatures for every character in the Mr. Nuclear comic! Mr. Nuclear, The Twins, The Master, Amber, Hel-Ber (an Octopoid creation of my boss and good friend from Heritage, David Helber), and yes, even the lizard ladies. In fact, I actually have over a hundred metal lizard lady warriors that have been used in actual table battle games!

In this series, Mr. Nuclear's character is the same as it has been in films and radio. A bit arrogant, but also, the bumbling hero who always manages to get things right in the end. Well, maybe not always, but, that's beside the point! I hope you enjoy the first Mr. Nuclear Comic adventure!



Mr. Nuclear 1

Mr. Nuclear 2

Mr. Nuclear 3



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