MORRISON MONDAYS celebrates International Olympic Day… By BILL MORRISON Monday is International Olympic Day, and in recognition of this day that commemorates the founding of the modern Olympic games in 1894, I present a cover that I drew for a special Simpsons comic book that Bongo produced for our UK publishing partner, Titan Comics. Simpsons Go for the Gold was created to take advantage of the 2012 London Summer Games, but Bongo also decided to print our own version to offer as an exclusive book, available only at San Diego Comic-Con that year. I recall having a conversation during production with our attorney who told me we had to be careful about a few things. Apparently, the Olympics organization jealously guards certain names, and even nicknames, so we couldn’t use the term “Summer Games” for example, and we definitely couldn’t us the word “Olympic” anywhere on the cover. We came up with “Go for the Gold” and that passed muster. The Olympics people were also very touchy about the use of a torch in any unofficial Olympics-related products, and especially the image of someone running with a torch. I researched historic photos of the Olympic torch and tried to design something that didn’t look like anything they had ever used, but ultimately, my drawing was still problematic. Somehow, the Bongo version went to press as I originally drew it with Homer holding the flaming torch and roasting a hot dog as he runs, as did some other international variants. But the UK version didn’t make it to the printer without a little surgery first. Someone, I don’t recall who, decided to play it safe and 86 the torch. So, for those of you who’ve seen the UK version of this book and always wondered why Homer is running with a flaming weenie on a stick and awkwardly balling his free hand into a fist for some reason, now you know… the rest of the story! — Want more MORRISON MONDAYS? Come back next week! Want a commission? See below! — MORE — That Time MARVEL Actually Published My AVENGERS Story — in Full SIMPSONS Style. Click here. — THE ESCAPIST SERIAL That Should Have Been (Or, How I Was Once Mistaken For a Nazi). Click here. — Eisner winner BILL MORRISON has been working in comics and publishing since 1993 when he...
MORRISON MONDAYS! By BILL MORRISON In 2002-03, Marvel had a miniseries titled Marvel Double-Shot, which featured two, 11-page stories per issue by different writers and artists. One day at Bongo, I got a call from the editor of the series, Marc Sumerak, asking me if I’d like to write and draw a story. He laid out the concept of the book and told me I could choose any characters I wanted for my story except for Spider-Man and the X-Men, the reason being that those characters were already oversaturated among their titles. Naturally, I was very flattered and extremely excited that they wanted me, a lowly humor cartoonist, to do a Marvel story! Then it dawned on me that they probably wanted me to do it in The Simpsons style. Why? Because that’s what everyone wanted. I began my career as a photorealistic illustrator, and went on to draw in many different styles, but my work for The Simpsons had me typecast! Plus, The Simpsons were red hot! So, I said “Before I say yes, do you want me to draw it in my own style, or in The Simpsons style?” Marc answered “Oh, definitely in The Simpsons style!” Well, that let the air right out of my big, happy, Marvel balloon. Regretfully, I didn’t feel I had the right to co-opt The Simpsons style for another publisher, so I had to decline the invitation. Within a few weeks, Matt Groening came into my office and asked if I’d heard about the new Spider-Man one-shot by Peter Bagge, The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man. Matt and I were both fans of Peter’s Hate comic, and I could see that Matt was excited about seeing what he would do with Ol’ Webhead. Matt directed me to a website on my computer that had a preview of the book, and we spent a few minutes gushing about how cool it was to see Spidey done in Bagge’s underground, cartoony style. Then, I swear to Jeebus, he looked at me and said “You should call someone at Marvel and tell them you want to do a story in The Simpsons style!” His very words! When I told him that just days earlier a Marvel editor had invited me to do literally what he suggested, and that I had turned him down, he asked “Why did...
MORRISON MONDAYS Meets JOKER WEEK!
CATWOMAN WEEK and MORRISON MONDAYS collide — for a Sheldon Moldoff birthday salute!
