MORRISON MONDAYS!
By BILL MORRISON
Last week I wrote about an image that I drew in 1993 for the purpose of heralding Matt Groening’s forthcoming publishing company, Bongo Comics. In that remembrance, I mentioned how editor Steve Vance gave me the task of thinking up some ideas for promotional images based on classic comic book covers. Well, I recently uncovered some of those rough sketches in a flat file drawer, and as promised, here they are!
You can tell I was a student of the masters… Kirby, Steranko, Adams, Infantino, Kane, Shuster… even Robert Crumb!
After Jack Kirby and George Roussos
After Jim Steranko
After Neal Adams
After Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson
After Gil Kane and Kirby & George Klein
After Joe Shuster
After Robert Crumb
Inspired by Adams
When I presented these sketches to Steve, he instantly zeroed in on the Fantastic Four #1 homage. None of the sketches were quite right for the image we needed to promote the birth of the company, including the FF #1 sketch. We needed a drawing that kept the Simpsons family front and center, but also prominently displayed the subjects of our other three titles: Bartman, Radioactive Man, and Itchy & Scratchy Comics. So, I went back to the drawing board and came up with the image that I wrote about in last week’s column, the tribute to the covers of DC 100-Page Spectacular #6 and All-Star Comics #16. It fit the bill perfectly.
But Steve loved the idea of launching the company with a parody of Kirby’s classic Fantastic Four #1 cover, so he asked me to draw it up and ink it for the cover of the first issue of Simpsons Comics! In fact, Steve was so inspired by the idea of Homer as a giant, rampaging monster, he decided to write the main story of Simpsons Comics #1 around the cover!
Steve provided detailed layouts with his hilarious and outlandish script, and I contributed tight pencils and inks with Cindy adding colors and lettering. The title of this terrific tale was The Amazing Colossal Homer, itself a parody of the title of the 1957 American International Pictures production, The Amazing Colossal Man.
Steve’s instincts couldn’t have been more acute, because not only did the issue sell like crazy, The Amazing Colossal Homer was nominated that year for the Eisner Award™ for Best Short Story! And in July of 1994, Steve, Cindy, and I found ourselves at San Diego Comic-Con on the Eisner Awards™ stage, accepting the trophy from Will Eisner himself!
Me, Cindy, Will Eisner, Steve
Winning that award for our very first effort was a wonderful way to make our entrance into the world of comic book publishing. Sadly, Jack Kirby passed away just a few months before, and I’ve always felt that the only thing that would have made the honor sweeter was if we’d been able to publicly thank him for the inspiration that led to it.
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Want more MORRISON MONDAYS? Come back next week! Want a commission? See below!
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MORE
— When THE SIMPSONS Put A Spotlight on a Classic Comics Cover Design. Click here.
— REVEALED! The Brave Veterans Who Beat the REAL MARTIAN INVASION of 1938. Click here.
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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.
