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On April 4, 2000, Kevin Hendryx (KevinHendryx@mail.utexas.edu) wrote:

Ah, Metaman --

He was my illegitimate child -- I drew him at work a bunch of times, mainly for the amusement of the staff, especially receptionist Liza Thrift, who collected them and showed them to her two young children, who were enraptured by him. Which only goaded me on to do more strips, many of which must have gone to Liza and are now presumably lost.

I was very gung-ho and glad to be at Metagaming during my time there and Metaman came out of that enthusiasm -- it took Howard's act of corporate hari-kari to make me angry and that has left a lingering sense of betrayal. I enjoyed being there and tried to make it a fun experience for others to be involved with, too. Plus this came naturally -- at TSR, the Product development staff was very, very tight (I'm still friends with many of those people) and we definitely created our own fun and our own private world of jokes and insiders' banter while I was there. I missed this at Metagaming; there was really only Norm Royal to bounce this stuff off of. Howard was too detached and occupied with Publisher things.

When Howard destroyed Metagaming in the spring of 1982, I drew one last bitter Metaman -- an empty uniform, smoking, with the label "Oh No! Metaman's Dead! Howard Killed Him!!" I gave it to Liza for her kids but I think she thought it was too sad and awful to give to them, heh. She was the most decent and kindly of all Howard's office staff.

This particular cartoon shows Metaman pummeling cariacatures of TSR's Gary Gygax (left) and Will Neibling, two of the blackest villains to those of us at TSR who left or were "purged" in the summer of 1981 (the first of what would be many waves of company implosions.) I offer only shamefaced admissions of my lack of actual cartooning talent! (I never pretended to be an artist!)

Meta-Kevin

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