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22-481: After appearing in various comic book pin-up and poster pages, the Big Guy first appeared without Rusty in issues #6 and 7 of Mike Allred 's Madman Comics , which was part of Dark Horse Comics ' now defunct Legend imprint . The property graduated to its own series, a large format two-issue mini-series in 1995, written by Frank Miller and illustrated by Geof Darrow . The story revolves around an attack on Tokyo by

44-615: A Mormon , though a liberal -leaning one, and has stated that he still identifies with the beliefs. He considers the Book of Mormon to be a phenomenal and fascinating story irrespective of its factual accuracy. Allred's retro-styled artwork is a frequent nominee for comics awards such as the Harveys , the Eisners , and the Eagles . In his career, he has received: Tundra Publishing Tundra Publishing

66-681: A giant reptilian creature that is originated in an experiment gone wrong, and the failure of the newly commissioned Rusty the Boy Robot to stop the threat. Subsequently, Japan requested help from the U.S. Armed Forces , whose ultimate defense, the robot Big Guy, launches from his air carrier base and uses his awesome arsenal and good old-fashioned American know-how to save the day. Big Guy also makes an appearance in Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons ' Martha Washington Stranded in Space and cameo appearances in

88-604: A group of beatniks with superpowers. Issue #116 of X-Force , the first collaboration between Allred and Milligan, was the first Marvel comic book to not have the Comics Code Authority stamp of approval since 1971. In 2004 and 2005, Allred wrote and drew The Golden Plates , an adaptation of the Book of Mormon. Allred is a Latter-Day Saint, and completed much of the work on this project in collaboration with his wife Laura Allred . Allred worked again with Neil Gaiman in 2009 on

110-665: A living as an artist. Mike Allred began his career as a radio host on KYES AM 950 (KY95) in Roseburg, Oregon. He later became a television reporter in Europe, and started drawing comics in 1989 with the 104-page graphic novel Dead Air ( Slave Labor Graphics ). The story loosely followed his stint in radio as a sidebar to the true focus of the novel, the effects of post-nuclear war over a small Oregon town. He followed this up with his similarly titled works Graphique Musique (1990) and Grafik Muzik ( Caliber Comics 1990–1991), in which he set out

132-706: A profitable enterprise. It closed its doors in 1993 after burning through $ 14 million in three years. Kitchen Sink Press acquired its holdings; it reprinted popular Tundra publications such as Understanding Comics and continued to publish some Tundra series such as Taboo . While co-managing Mirage Studios , Eastman and his partner Peter Laird often spoke of the difficulties in maintaining creative control of their work. Eastman decided to address this problem by using his own personal knowledge and connections to help other creators. With Laird's blessing, Eastman started Tundra Publishing in 1990, to realize personal and other projects. Rick Veitch has written that: One of

154-454: A wife and a kid at home, and they had to make ends meet. But if they really had a chance, they said they'd really do this [at Tundra] and I'd hear this repeatedly. So, I went back to those artists because I had the money and said I'd give them the chance. I asked them what they'd like to do. They could pick their dream projects that they'd wanna do and I would provide the funding so that they could survive and they didn't have to do Spider-Man for

176-405: A year and I'll fund the projects and I just wanted to make my money back from the profits to keep my company going. As part of Eastman's designs for Tundra were to produce personal projects of an adult nature, this saw Tundra fitting in the dubious middle-ground, as their intended product sat somewhat awkwardly between the comic shop and the book shop. Eastman says that he originally "thought that

198-460: Is an American comic book artist and writer. He is most well known for his independent comics creation Madman and for co-creating and drawing the comic book series iZombie . His work often draws upon pop art , as well as commercial and comic art of the 1950s and 1960s. Michael Dalton Allred was born in 1962 in Roseburg, Oregon . His father, Dale Leroy Allred (May 20, 1926 – October 5, 2007),

220-556: The Metamorpho feature in Wednesday Comics . The Madman All-New Giant-Size Super-Ginchy Special! was published in April 2011. Allred and writer Matt Fraction crafted a Fantastic Four spinoff series, FF , in 2013. The following year, Allred and writer Dan Slott launched a new Silver Surfer series at Marvel. His comic book series iZombie , which ran from 2010 to 2012,

242-402: The audience was a lot larger than it actually was," citing his personal assumption that readers would "grow up through X-Men and discover The Sandman and then Dark Knight and Watchmen and beyond." The relatively new inroads of comics and graphic novels into bookshops worked against Tundra at the time. Tundra dealt in new properties, which required "building from the ground up," and

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264-576: The formation of Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics ' Legends imprint. Creators and projects involved with Tundra included Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz 's Big Numbers , Moore & Eddie Campbell 's From Hell , Moore & Melinda Gebbie 's Lost Girls (these last two original serialised in Stephen R. Bissette 's Taboo anthology, which was also part-published by Tundra), The Crow , Mike Allred 's Madman and Dave McKean 's Cages . Despite its ambitious start, Tundra never became

286-607: The last Sin City book, Sin City : Hell and Back . A two-season television adaptation , featuring the voices of Pamela Segall , Jonathan David Cook, Gabrielle Carteris , Stephen Root , Kathy Kinney , Kevin Michael Richardson , M. Emmet Walsh , and R. Lee Ermey , aired on the Fox Kids Network for 26 episodes from September 18, 1999 to March 5, 2001. Mike Allred Michael Dalton " Mike " Allred (born 1962)

308-548: The opening scene at a comic book convention, signing copies of his comic Madman . He also provides the artwork for the fictional comic book Bluntman and Chronic . Allred himself gained further mainstream attention with the science-fiction/rock-and-roll comic Red Rocket 7 (Dark Horse, 1997) and his art for writer Peter Milligan 's series X-Force , which he began drawing in July 2001, and subsequently became X-Statix . In 2000, AAA Pop published Allred's The Atomics , featuring

330-575: The plans was for Tundra to act as an exoskeleton for an existing self-publisher ; offering marketing muscle, higher production values, printing costs paid and a page rate up front for half the action no strings attached. Moreover, as Eastman said in a 2007 interview with Benjamin Ong Pang Kean, Tundra provided a forum for Marvel and DC creators to work on projects that they could not otherwise realize: Basically, I'd meet them at conventions and they'd said they're stuck doing Spider-Man , they had

352-546: The style that he was to become known for with his most famous character, Madman. Madman first appeared as Frank Einstein in Creatures of the Id and Grafik Muzik published in 1990, but it wasn't until March 1992 that the first Madman miniseries debuted from Tundra Publishing in March 1992. The series gained further recognition with its move to Dark Horse Comics in April 1994, where it

374-410: Was "a lot more work" than Eastman had anticipated, growing far too quickly for comfort, and requiring considerable injections of time and money, rather than being profitable. Tundra received multiple award nominations during its first and second years, including Harvey Awards and Eisner Awards , but despite critical acclaim the company was not making money on its titles. Speaking in 1992/93, Eastman

396-481: Was a Northampton, Massachusetts -based comic book publisher founded by Kevin Eastman in 1990. The company was founded to provide a venue for adventurous, creator-owned work by talented cartoonists and illustrators. Its publications were noted in the trade for their high production values, including glossy paper stock, full-color printing, and square binding. Tundra was one of the earlier creator-owned companies, before

418-479: Was adapted into a 2015 television series of the same name . Allred drew the 1960s variant cover for Action Comics #1000 (June 2018). His wife, Laura , frequently works as his colorist . Mike all red had worked with Mark Russell in 2022 and 2024 to make Superman: Space Age (2022), and Batman: Dark Age (2024). Allred was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . He considers himself

440-925: Was born in Portland, Oregon . He was a psychologist and professor at Umpqua Community College and the University of Oregon , and received a Doctor of Philosophy in 1959 at Purdue University . Allred's mother, RaeBell Jenkins (née Bird; July 19, 1934 – February 17, 2014), was born in Bluebell, Utah . The two married in December 1951 in Salt Lake City, Utah . In 1973, Allred's parents divorced, and he stayed with his father in Eugene, Oregon , while his brothers and mother moved to Utah . In 1980, he attended Ricks College as an art major but switched to broadcasting fearing that he couldn't make

462-550: Was optimistic that the company had "finally reached the point where [it had] slowed up enough . . . to be giving individual projects the time and attention they require[d]." Shortly thereafter, in the spring of 1993, Tundra was bought out by Kitchen Sink Press , closing its (solo) doors after just three years, losing Eastman between $ 9 and $ 14 million. Notable works released by Tundra include: Tundra had been prepared to take over publication of Alan Moore's troubled Big Numbers series (originally self-published by Moore) before it

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484-462: Was relaunched as Madman Comics and went on to be nominated for several Harvey Awards . Madman Comics ran for 20 issues and ended in 2000. From 2007 to 2009, Image Comics published Madman: Atomic Comics for 17 issues. Allred drew part of the 1993 " Worlds' End " story arc in Neil Gaiman 's The Sandman series. Allred appeared as himself in the 1997 feature film Chasing Amy as part of

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