MORRISON MONDAYS!
By BILL MORRISON
I once wrote a book about a dear friend and artistic idol titled Innocence and Seduction: The Art of Dan DeCarlo. Often referred to as “The Jack Kirby of Humor Comics,” Dan was a major figure in the world of comic books and cartooning, and it occurred to me in the late 1990s that nobody had yet written a book about his life and art.
Well, that’s not exactly true, there was a cheaply printed paperback by Archie Fan Magazine editor Mary Smith. But it was sort of like a special square-bound edition of the magazine, available only to fan club members, and not the deluxe, hardcover coffee table art book that I felt Dan’s work deserved. So, I spoke to the iconic Archie artist about my book idea and he invited me to come to his home in Scarsdale, New York, to interview him, go through original art and photos, and start making plans for my pitch to publishers. My excitement was high, but when Dan passed away in 2001 I lost my steam and the project shifted to my back burner.
A few years later I was talking with Dan’s widow, Josie, and she asked me, “Whatever happened to that art book that you and Dan were working on?” I told her that with Dan gone I’d lost my motivation to continue with it, but her reply turned me right around. She said “Oh, that’s too bad. I was really looking forward to it.” And that was kick in the pants I needed. I realized I had originally been doing the book for Dan, but now I had the incentive to move ahead and do it for Josie.
The book was published by Fantagraphics in 2006, and went out of print in a fairly short amount of time. That OOP status and a subsequent rise in the awareness and popularity of Dan’s work made it a rare grail for DeCarlo fans who’d missed out on it. Copies began selling online for hundreds of dollars, and naturally, I had mixed feelings about that. As the author, I liked the fact that it was so well respected and valued by DeCarlo fans, but that also meant that a lot of people who wanted to own it and read Dan’s story couldn’t afford to do so.
Thankfully, Gary Groth at Fantagraphics decided that the book was worthy of a second printing. He contacted me about it and we discussed the possibility of adding material to the original edition. We decided to do this in the form of a gallery of original art reproductions at the back of the book. In the two decades since I wrote the original, I continued to collect Dan’s work, so coming up with additional covers and pin-ups was not a problem. But I told Gary that I also had some complete stories that were in the public domain, and he agreed to add those as well.
So in October of this year, Innocence and Seduction: The Art of Dan DeCarlo — Expanded Edition hit bookstore shelves with a new cover and an additional 65 pages that were not in the original version. Many of those pages feature stunning pin-ups, so Dexterous Dan, the Idea Man suggested I present my 13 FAVORITE DAN DeCARLO PIN-UPS! I loved the idea, but with the hundreds of pin-ups that Dan DeCarlo drew over the decades I found it impossible to narrow my faves down to 13. So with a qualifier I present my 13 Favorite Dan DeCarlo Pin-Ups from my original art collection (and they all appear in the new edition of the book!)
I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
In no particular order:
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Innocence and Seduction: The Art of Dan DeCarlo — Expanded Edition, a 248-page oversize hardcover, lists for $65. You can get it through comics shops and booksellers or you can order it directly from Fantagraphics. Click here.
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Want more MORRISON MONDAYS? Come back next week! Want a commission? See below!
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MORE
— When WRIGHTSON, COLAN and WILLIAMSON Entered BART SIMPSON’S TREEHOUSE OF HORROR. Click here.
— BOB OKSNER’s Delightful Original JERRY LEWIS AND BATMAN Art: A Birthday Celebration. Click here.
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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.
November 4, 2024
I’m not familiar with much of DeCarlo’s non-Archie work, but from the covers of the different editions of the book, I gather it includes a lot of single-panel gags for Playboy and other men’s magazines. Does anyone know whether DeCarlo wrote the captions for those himself, or if other(s) contributed them?
BTW, I found a version of the “X.Y.Z. TV” cartoon with the caption “I simply won’t cover up—you just make an announcement for children to leave the room!”
November 13, 2024
It’s covered in my book, Jim. Dan wrote the captions at first, but when he couldn’t get a raise above the $15 he was paid per cartoon he decided to stop including the captions. He would just send in the art and someone in the office at Humorama would have to write a caption to fit the image.
November 4, 2024
I’m not familiar with much of DeCarlo’s non-Archie work, but from the covers of the different editions of the book, I gather it includes a lot of single-panel gags for Playboy and other men’s magazines. Does anyone know whether DeCarlo wrote the captions for those himself, or if other(s) contributed them?
BTW, I found a version of the “X.Y.Z. TV” cartoon listed above that was captioned “I simply won’t cover up—you just make an announcement for children to leave the room!”
November 4, 2024
Thank you, Bill! These look beautiful!
November 4, 2024
Last time I saw Bill he signed that 2006 DeCarlo edition before presenting a Bongo Comics panel and later that weekend Bill was catching up with Josie DeCarlo. The Bongo PowerPoint had problems and the assembled fans came up to try and fix the slideshow. Mike Kazaleh stated this was now the “interactive” portion of the Bongo presentation. Hoping to have a 2024 Morrison-signed DeCarlo book on my shelf someday soon.
November 8, 2024
I love Dan’s pinups, especially from the early to mid 60s but they are all amazing. I love seeing the Josie one. I don’t think he did that many Josie pinups, did he? Thanks for sharing.
November 13, 2024
Not as many as he did of the Archie characters, Bob. A lot of the pin-ups were in the Archie Giants Series comics as filler, and there weren’t as many of the Josie Giants.