Posted By Dan Greenfield on Oct 14, 2024 | 1 comment

MORRISON MONDAYS

By BILL MORRISON

One of my greatest passions is collecting comic art, so people often ask me what type of art I collect most. The answer is a bit complicated by the fact that, as a comic artist myself, I have favorite artists and like to collect their work. However, I’m a big Batman fan, so I like to collect original art of the Dynamic Duo and their rogues gallery of fiendish foes.

But specifically, I’m always looking for art depicting the Caped Crusader by one of my favorite comic artists. Examples of that subset in my collection are pages, covers, and sketches by Bernie Wrightson, Steranko, Jordi Bernet, Shelly Moldoff, Dick Sprang, Sergio Aragonés, Gil Kane, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Mike Allred, and Gene Colan. When a piece of art checks two boxes for me, it’s irresistible.

But every so often I come across some art that checks a third box, and the pages shown here are perfect examples of that. Anyone who knows me is painfully aware that I’ve been an unabashed fan of the comedy of Jerry Lewis since childhood! So, when I had the opportunity to own a couple of pages from 1966’s The Adventures of Jerry Lewis #97, which guest starred Batman and Robin, and was drawn by one of my most admired artists, Bob Oksner, that was a comic art triumvirate I could not resist!

And the fact that one of these pages also features Bob’s depictions of Batman’s archenemies the Joker, the Riddler, and the Penguin (complete with a shout-out to Julie Newmar!) was frosting on an already scrumptious cake!

Today is the 108th anniversary of Bob Oksner’s arrival on the planet, and I plan to celebrate by re-reading my copy of The Adventures of Jerry Lewis #97, and dreaming about what it would be like to go to Batman-Land with Jerry!

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