Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Jeff Beckman, kickstarter, Ulti-Man, Ultimate Man, webcomic

The Once Greatest Superhero

Published Sun, 07 Jul 2013 17:00:57 -0500

Jeff Beckman writes for Bleeding Cool

Ultimate Man used to be the world's greatest superhero. He fought giant monsters that threatened the world day and night, but one day… the monsters were all gone. Ultimate Man had unfortunately fought and killed every last monster on the planet, forcing him out of the job as a superhero. Unemployed, Ultimate Man took up the guise of Marty Greenstein and acted as himself (Ultimate Man) in Hollywood Monster movies. If Ultimate Man can't continue being a real life superhero, a movie hero is just as good… right? At first his movies were good, people loved them, but after a sequel came another sequel, and then another after that… and you get the picture. People were getting tired of his movies, and the writers were getting progressively more lazy with the scripts. It all came down to one last film, "Ultimate Man VS. The Phone Company", to put the final nail in Ultimate Man's career. Unemployed yet again, Ultimate Man manages to keep an apartment in the city and has a steady relationship while slowly drifting back into obscurity.

This is where the webcomic ULTI-MAN picks up along this storyline. ULTI-MAN is a story of Ultimate Man's daily life, and how he deals with the world around him. I have been writing with this character since my second year in college, so I've been making stories for him for about four or five years now. Ultimate Man began as a character created for a homework assignment in character design class, then he became the centerpiece of my 2D animation final project later that year, fighting his nemesis Tenticlon in a doctors office waiting room.

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/20396568[/vimeo]

The ULTI-MAN webcomic has been going steady for a little over a year and a half with over 150 comic strips to date. Within the current archives there is a large story arc that I feel would really work as a standalone story if need be, and that is what I would like to bring to print. ULTI-MAN vol.1 will contain strips 1-110 of ULTI-MAN in a 120 page book including behind the scenes sketches, character designs and exclusive artwork to the book. I'm hoping to be able to put this book to print by this fall and it will only be possible through a Kickstarter campaign. With your help, I will be able to give Ultimate Man the chance to make it into the real, physical world, and share his story with an even broader audience.

If the readers of Bleeding Cool can help ULTI-MAN reach it's funding goal by Friday July 12th I will release a special, never before seen, ULTI-MAN short comic on BleedingCool.com! Thank you all for your support, I would not be able to do this without you.

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