Posted on February 20, 2025

M.D. Geist, 1995

“The best bad anime you’ll ever see.”

I already liked John O’Donnell before he hired me and Studio Go! to make comics for him. He welcomed my views on things, invited me in on interesting projects, and brought a dream to life when he successfully imported my favorite mecha anime. But when I saw that quote from him about M.D. Geist, I liked him even more.

Here’s why: I really didn’t like the Notorious MDG. It was released to Japanese home video in May 1986, and I saw it a year or so later. I thought it was loud, dumb, and derivative. An empty suit of armor. The anime version of the super hero comics I was starting to loathe, filtered through Mad Max and death metal. I showed it to others and it may have become my first anime hate-watch.

But John O’Donnell LOVED it. So much that when he founded Central Park Media to import anime to English-speaking audiences, he licensed M.D. Geist as his company mascot. The character was fused to the U.S. Manga Corps logo and became a permanent part of their identity. Their “spokesmecha,” as John called it. He released Geist to America on VHS in 1992 and Laserdisc the year after. When we started talking, I hoped the subject didn’t come up because I didn’t want to risk taking a dump on something that important to John.

But when I read John’s quote about Geist, the one at the top of this page, I breathed a big sigh of relief. He loved it, but he also GOT it. M.D. Geist is basically just an ear-shredding guitar solo in a metal concert where all the songs are about nothing in particular. Nobody ever pretended it was more than that. For this, I commend them.

When Studio Go! started making comics for Central Park Media, John stated early on that he wanted an adaptation of M.D. Geist. And I knew that I would be the one to draw it, since my style was the closest to the original. Prior to this I had drawn other comics I didn’t particularly like, so I wasn’t precious about it. But I had to swallow hard on this one since it had all the same qualities of comics I hated most back then, most of which came from Image. And as those who were around me at the time can tell you, I did not keep that opinion to myself.

Japanese laserdisc (1986)

As I’ve stated elsewhere on this website, it’s a fact of life that when you get into the entertainment biz (comics and animation in my case), you don’t usually have the luxury of working on stuff you like. You work on what is offered to you, and if you happen to like it, that’s a nice bonus. I’ve enjoyed that bonus from time to time. Working on the other stuff helps you to better appreciate that bonus when you can get it. But for many of us, the “other stuff” is the norm.

That was the case here. At the time I drew it (late ’94 into early ’95) I was also drawing Star Blazers comics for Argo Press, so that kept me buoyant. I also knew that John O’Donnell was negotiating to land Armored Trooper Votoms, and it was worth everything to hang on for that. If I had to draw an M.D. Geist comic book, I was going to give it my best effort. It wasn’t my favorite, but I wasn’t making it for myself.

Art book, Film Comics, magazine cover (all 1986)

On the other hand, the involvement of Koichi Ohata, who made his directorial debut on this cinematic masterpiece, gave it an interesting twist. Ohata made a trip to Los Angeles in the summer of ’94, and John O’Donnell arranged for him to have lunch with me and my studio partners, John Ott and Bruce Lewis. Koichi didn’t speak English, but Bruce spoke just enough Japanese for us to have a rudimentary conversation. Koichi was like a kid on Christmas morning, amazed that all of this was happening for him. That put more resolve in my spine to do a good job. Because how could I let him down after that?

In a later interview, Ohata said, “I started working at the tail end of the [1980s] anime boom, so I had a lot of frustrations, and Geist was a work that was made out of those frustrations.” I could certainly relate to that, then and now. When you get a chance to transform your personal motivations into a real storytelling project, nothing should dilute it. Especially someone who is paid to give you a hand.

VHS and laserdisc releases, U.S. Manga Corps (1992-1996)

To help boost authenticity, Koichi would draw a few pages for each issue. When I roughed them out, I included splash pages and double-page spreads with zero or minimal dialogue so as not to complicate the storytelling. We sent him my roughs and he obliged on his side, providing us with the finished art. It didn’t perfectly mesh with my style, but nobody complained, so I didn’t see a reason to either.

Putting my misgivings aside at the outset allowed me to focus on making the art as strong as I could, starting with the first page. Visually, it was a very good fit with my sensibilities and skill level. There was only one book from Japan that featured the design art, but it was a godsend. It gave me exactly what I needed to stay accurate to the anime. This was especially important when we got to the mecha fight in issue 3, since those robot bodies had some incredibly complex shapes.

CD Rom from U.S. Manga Corps (1997)

My work ended when pages were drawn, then everything was turned over to John Ott for lettering and color. He fused Ohata’s pages with mine and prepped the full package for printing. Ohata also provided us with painted covers for all three issues, new pieces that hadn’t been seen even in Japan yet. This was all John O’Donnell’s doing, which made it one of the few times an animator from Japan got to collaborate on an American comic adapting his work. In fact, I can’t think of any other occasion, but perhaps someone reading this can.

All three issues came out on a monthly schedule in the summer of 1995, and we were reunited with Koichi Ohata at that year’s Comic Con to plan the next Geist project together. Of course, I’ll cover that in future article. There were subsequent reprints, twice on paper (1996 and 2002) and once as a DVD feature on the M.D. Geist Director’s Cut (1996), which added five minutes of footage to the film.

DVD releases, U.S. Manga Corps (1999) and ADV Films (2009)

When I gathered the materials for this account, I was dismayed to discover that I didn’t keep a photocopy of my black and white art for issue 3, so all I have is the finished comic. I’m not sure why this happened, since I was dogged about not letting go of originals without grabbing a copy for the archive. In fact, I’m not even sure where the originals went. Maybe someone else can fill me in. Anyway, here’s what I kept, along with some odds and ends. I still don’t like M.D. Geist, but thirty years later I can truly say that I don’t regret this project one bit. LET’S GEIST!!

CAUTION: This is a MATURE READERS title. Some pages are neither safe for work nor for the yung’uns.