A MORRISON MONDAYS (early) birthday tribute… By BILL MORRISON This week, in celebration of tomorrow’s birthdate of the late, great Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens, I thought I’d share an artistic collaboration I had with the master illustrator. Shortly after Dave’s untimely death in 2008, I was approached by a friend, Kelvin Mao, with a request regarding one of Dave’s unfinished drawings. Kelvin, who was also a friend of Dave’s and went on to direct the award-winning documentary, “Dave Stevens: Drawn to Perfection,” had acquired a few prelims that Dave had drawn/painted for a planned pin-up of a sexy woman zooming off on a vintage-style Rocket bike. Kelvin showed the drawings to me and asked if I could take what was there and turn it into a finished, inked piece in the iconic Stevens style. Dave was a friend of mine too, and I’m a huge fan of his work, so I couldn’t resist this request to honor him by finishing one of his pieces! It was a daunting task, but one I took on with loads of enthusiasm. Though I enjoy mimicking the styles of other artists, to capture Dave’s exquisite brush and pen style felt a bit beyond my range. Still, what existed in the prelims was fun and exciting, so I dove in head first, deciding to forget my own misgivings and just have a blast! Dave was a fan of my Roswell: Little Green Man comics series, and my confidence was bolstered by the knowledge that he had liked and respected me as a fellow artist. Luckily, most of the important work was done by Dave in the prelims, such as the general outline of the figure, a detailed hand, and a very finished face. The bike design was mostly there, so I just had to expand on the bits that were merely roughed in. I had the outline of the woman’s flowing hair, so I just had to figure out what Dave might have done to flesh out the details by looking at other drawings of his. The same with the costume. I also referenced other “Stevens Girls” for help in adding detail to Dave’s minimal suggestions of her musculature, particularly in the left arm and leg. Once I was reasonably happy with my added details, I did a tight pencil drawing on tracing paper,...
MORRISON MONDAYS! By BILL MORRISON This week I’ll be hopping a plane bound for sunny San Diego, for the granddaddy of all comic conventions, San Diego Comic-Con! So on the occasion, I thought I’d show a painting I did for the cover of the con’s souvenir program book 35 years ago! I drew and painted this piece while working for Willardson Associates, a three-artist illustration studio owned by legendary airbrush artist David Willardson. To aid the studio in getting work, we had artist representatives in a few cities across the country, one being San Diego. Our rep in that town was David Scroggy, who had a long association with Comic-Con International San Diego, (still known colloquially as San Diego Comic-Con) and he landed us the gig to create the program cover for 1990. The image is based on a relic of the mid-20th century known as “large letters postcards,” which featured the name of a city or state in big, open letter forms with images from that specific locale inside the outlines. Dave Willardson brainstormed the idea to parody those classic cards with the letters of “San Diego” overflowing with comics and animation characters that were having anniversaries that year. Due to painting a string of Disney movie posters, I had become “the cartoon guy” in the studio, so the job fell to me to execute the piece. The letters were designed by a typographic designer whose name I don’t recall, and I drew and painted the characters and the background. Many savvy 13th Dimensioneers will notice that two of the characters in the piece did not have a major anniversary in 1990. Somehow when choosing the characters, we were off by a year with the Human Torch and Namor, the Sub-Mariner. They both debuted in Marvel Mystery Comics #1 in 1939, so their 50th anniversaries had been in 1989. Here is a list of the rest of them, with their debut dates: The Spirit (1940) Brenda Starr, Reporter ((1940) Woody Woodpecker (1940) Dagwood Bumstead (1930) Betty Boop (1930) The Flash (1940) Green Lantern (1940) Captain Marvel (1940) Robin (1940) Catwoman (1940) Joker (1940) EC’s horror hosts, the Old Witch, the Crypt Keeper, and the Vault Keeper (1950) Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice in Fantasia (1940) Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket (1940) Captain America (1940) Bugs Bunny (1940) Tom...
