Posted By Dan Greenfield on Aug 4, 2025 | 1 comment

MORRISON MONDAYS!

By BILL MORRISON

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Strange Tales #135 and the debut of the Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage and Law-Enforcement Division in the feature, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

This is the issue (released in May 1965 with an August pub date) where Stan Lee and Jack Kirby took their World War II hero, Nick Fury, and brought him into the Cold War era as a super spy, fully equipped with a never-ending array of high-tech gadgets that would make James Bond’s Q resign from the British Secret Service in shame.

Jim Steranko entered the picture with Issue #151, doing finishes over Kirby’s layouts, and by #155 was not only pencilling and inking the feature, but writing it as well! Steranko supercharged the concept originated by Stan and Jack, and added an element of psychedelic design and layout that gave him a reputation as an innovator in the field of comics and propelled him to superstardom.

Strange Tales #151

In the early days of Bongo Comics, we featured secondary Simpsons characters in their own short backup stories, while also parodying our favorite genres of the comics we grew up reading. It was Steranko’s version of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. that inspired Steve Vance, along with the voice of Homer Simpson and Krusty the Clown, Dan Castellaneta, and Simpsons TV series writer, Deb Lacusta, to pen the brilliant parody, Krusty, Agent of K.L.O.W.N. (Keeping Law & Order With Novelty Items… don’t ask me what happened to the I) in Simpsons Comics #3.

Of particular note in this story is the sendup of Steranko’s famous silent make-out page set in “Fury’s New York pad,” that ended with the notoriously symbolic gun-in-holster panel.

Through the miracle of upside down printing, we also gave each of the backup stories their own cover, and that assignment for this issue fell to me. I used Steranko’s Strange Tales #167 cover as my inspiration, implementing the Krusty show cast as stand-ins for S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and replacing the American flag background with a hypno-coin optic.

In addition to co-writing the story, Steve drew detailed layouts that perfectly captured and lampooned Steranko’s storytelling style. I did tight pencils and inks from the layouts and Cindy Vance added magnificent colors and lettering.

I’m nothing if not a bona fide Steranko nut, and a few years later I utilized the back pages of Simpsons Comics #36-39 to present a parody of Jim’s work that included S.H.I.E.L.D., Captain America, and even the X-Men, as chronicled in my column of May 6, 2024, “When the Simpsons Went Steranko.”

For those who want to look for a copy of Simpsons Comics #3 to read the whole story, I offer a caveat. There is a very pricey version of this issue known as the “Bart Code” edition. It has a portion of Bart Simpson’s head in the box where the barcode usually is on newsstand editions. Copies of that version can go for as much as $500, so if you look for the book online and they’re asking hundreds of dollars, don’t be dismayed: A regular edition can be found for a few bucks!

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