REVEALED! The Brave Veterans Who Beat the REAL MARTIAN INVASION of 1938
A special Veterans Day MORRISON MONDAYS!
A special Veterans Day MORRISON MONDAYS! By BILL MORRISON One day I got an email from IDW editor Denton Tipton, who asked if I was interested in writing and drawing a Mars Attacks story for a 2012 special issue they were planning titled Mars Attacks the Holidays. Easy ask! Of course I readily accepted the assignment and Denton sent me a list of holidays to consider. Of course all the major celebrations were there, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Easter, etc. But I wanted to go with a day that was more obscure. When my eyes hit “Veterans Day” on the list, they went no further. The tale I crafted stars a group of veterans from various wars prior to WWII (including the Civil War!) who band together to fight a group of Martian scouts in the days between Orson Welles’ infamous 1938 Halloween Eve “War of the Worlds” broadcast and the first Armistice Day (now Veterans Day) on November 11. Due to my Bongo duties, I didn’t have time to tighten up my pencils and ink the story, so I enlisted my friend and fellow Simpsons artist, Tone Rodriguez, to supply the finished art. Coloring was done by Ronda Pattinson, with lettering by Chris Mowry. The story remains a favorite of mine and stands as my somewhat campy tribute to the brave men and women of the American armed services who put their lives on the line so that we may enjoy our freedom! — Want more MORRISON MONDAYS? Come back next week! Want a commission? See below! — MORE — BILL MORRISON: MY 13 Favorite DAN DeCARLO PIN-UPS. Click here. — When WRIGHTSON, COLAN and WILLIAMSON Entered BART SIMPSON’S TREEHOUSE OF HORROR. 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...
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...
A special Veterans Day MORRISON MONDAYS!