BATMAN STRIKES AGAIN: What if JACK KIRBY Had Never Left DC Comics in 1958?

The debut installment of cartoonist Bill Morrison’s MORRISON MONDAYS — a special for BATMAN WEEK…

Hey, it’s the first installment of MORRISON MONDAYS, a new, weekly feature spotlighting the groovy work of cartoonist extraordinaire Bill Morrison — particularly his cover homages/parodies. (You can click here to read more about this coolness.)

Not just that, it’s BATMAN WEEK, so Bill’s initial foray features the Caped Crusader himself…

“I drew this switcheroo version of Jack Kirby’s cover to The Avengers #4 in pencil a few years ago on a Hero Initiative JLA sketch cover,” sez Bill. “Since then, I’ve thought about inking and coloring it, and adding the early ’60s JLA trade dress, and Dan finally gave me a good reason to do so — not to mention a deadline! The image makes its debut as a finished cover parody here today! Two of my favorite words in sequence are “What if” so the rough idea behind the image is “What if Jack Kirby had never left DC Comics in 1958?”

Here’s Kirby’s original, by the by…

… as well as the real Justice League of America #26 cover that came out that month — January 1964, 50 years ago!

Want more MORRISON MONDAYS? Come back next week! Want a commission? See below!

MORE

— The BATMAN WEEK 2024 INDEX! Click here.

— BATWOMAN AND BAT-GIRL: Dig This Homage to the Classic BATMAN AND ROBIN PIN-UP, by BILL MORRISON. Click here.

Eisner winner Bill Morrison has been working in comics and publishing since 1993 when he co-founded Bongo Entertainment with Matt Groening, Cindy Vance and Steve Vance. At Bongo, and later as Executive Editor of Mad Magazine, he parodied the comics images he loved as a kid every chance he got. Not much has changed.

Bill is on Instagram (@atomicbattery) and Facebook (Bill Morrison/Atomic Battery Studios), and regularly takes commissions and sells published art through 4C Comics.

Author: Dan Greenfield

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7 Comments

  1. Avengers #4 may be my all-time favorite book, and this DC spin of it by Morrison is just jaw droppingly great.

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  2. We ran out of room for Aquaman… hahaha. Thanks

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  3. I look forward to more of these Kirby-at-DC suppositions.

    Supposedly, at one point he was on tap for the SHAZAM, which you can see faint traces of in his brief yet memorable feature OMAC.

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  4. Better penciller than was in the original book, Jack Kirby excelled with his style with good inkers!

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