BATMAN PINUPALOOZA Meets MORRISON MONDAYS! — Welcome to BATMAN PINUPALOOZA, a 60th anniversary celebration of the seven seminal 1966 Batman pinups by penciller Carmine Infantino and inker Murphy Anderson that in large measure became the definitive versions of the Dynamic Duo and their venal villains for years to come. This is a 13th Dimension theme week unlike any we’ve done before: Each of our artists — Kerry Callen, Bill Morrison, Des Taylor, Walt Grogan (who did that fab banner), Chris Franklin, Dakota Alexander and Franco — is reimagining at least one of the pinups every day this week, with equal parts reverence, whimsy and humor. For more on BATMAN PINUPALOOZA and the history of these pinups, click here. — Dan — By BILL MORRISON My homage to the 1966 Batmobile pin-up by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson features Bart Simpson’s favorite caped crime-fighters, Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy in place of the Dynamic Duo. In all the years that Bongo published Radioactive Man comics, I regret that we never gave him a cool supercar. We could have had a lot of fun lampooning stories in which characters endowed with flight, super-speed, or the ability to swing through town on webbing, added a superfluous automobile to their crime-fighting arsenal. But I’m happy to have this opportunity to draw the unnecessary Radioactive-mobile that might have been! Just as George Barris customized the 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car to create the 1966 TV Batmobile, I based my atomic coupe upon the 1952 Manta Ray concept car, fashioned by aircraft designers Glenn Hire and Vernon Antoine. I added a bubble top with ports to allow the Nuclear Knight and his sidekick’s capes to flutter out behind them, thus avoiding the annoying wrinkles that occur when superheroes are forced to sit on their cloaks. I also added tail fins, just because they’re cool, and a giant lightning bolt atop the bubble, which either reduces or adds to wind resistance, I’m not quite sure which. (Hey, I’m a cartoonist, not an aerodynamics engineer!) I colored the Radioactive-mobile image but our pal Walt Grogan “aged” it in the version below. Which do you like better? — Want more BATMAN PINUPALOOZA? Click here! Want more MORRISON MONDAYS? Come back next week! Want a commission? See below! — MORE — The Complete BATMAN PINUPALOOZA Index. Click here. — INSANE...
MORRISON MONDAYS! By BILL MORRISON Back in January I wrote about a pin-up illustration of a sexy woman dressed as Robin the Boy Wonder that I did back in 1989. The painting was inspired by some articles from tabloid newspapers about Batman-obsessed men that were merged together to craft a story about one Bat-crazy dude. When I was writing my column, I searched through boxes in my studio to find the original tabloid clippings that I knew I’d saved, but to no avail. Then, by chance, a few weeks later, I found them. I think there must have been a third story that mentioned the dry cleaner and the maid that were in the story that accompanied my pin-up, but that’s lost to time. So, as an addendum to that column of January 19, I thought it would be fun to show the articles, along with the cover of one of the newspapers. In rereading the articles, I rediscovered some very interesting tidbits that didn’t make it into my earlier piece, such as $10,000 Batman movie premiere tickets, and a woman hired to cosplay as Vicki Vale. There was also a lot more sex than I’d remembered, so proceed with caution! — Want more MORRISON MONDAYS? Come back in a few weeks — Bill’s going on a brief hiatus! Want a commission? See below! — MORE — THE SIMPSONS 800th EPISODE POSTER: It’s an Honor to Do the Honors. Click here. — 100 YEARS OF JERRY LEWIS: Dig This INSIDE LOOK at MOVIE LOVE — the Comedy Legend’s First Comic Books. 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...
