MORRISON MONDAYS!
By BILL MORRISON
When Matt Groening’s epic sci-fi comedy Futurama returned (the first time) it was in the form of four direct-to-DVD movies. The last of these was 2009’s Into the Wild Green Yonder, for which I drew the cover.
While the film was in production, I was approached by Futurama showrunner David X. Cohen to create an animated sequence for a bonus DVD feature. I told David that, although I helped to visually develop the show and worked on the first four seasons as Art Director, I wasn’t really an animator. David explained that the art I produced would be prop art and wouldn’t actually be animated for the feature. It just had to look like it could be. Oh, and it had to be drawn on a roll of toilet paper. Okaaay… challenge accepted!
David supplied the roll, and I started drawing. As mentioned, I’m not an animator, so I found a rough animated sequence of Bender drinking a mug of beer and light-boxed it, one drawing per sheet, onto the toilet paper. The hard part was finding a pen that wouldn’t bleed into the loose fibers of the paper. I also had to be very careful not to tear the fragile sheets with the tip of the pen.
The success of the DVD movies, now considered Futurama’s fifth season, sparked a return of broadcast episodes on Comedy Central in 2010. I attended a table read for an early Season 6 episode and was surprised and delighted when David Cohen presented me with my toilet paper drawings in a frame and proclaimed it “The world’s first toilet paper animation!” Whether it actually is the first, I have no idea. But then, why wouldn’t it be?
You can see how my “animation” was used in the complete bonus feature, titled “How We Make Futurama So Good,” featuring the voice of Amy Wong, Lauren Tom:
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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 Comics.
