A MORRISON MONDAYS BONUS!
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Ringo Starr turns 85 today — July 7, 2025 — and we’ve reprinted our interview with Bill Morrison about his lovely graphic novel adaptation of Yellow Submarine. But Bill has a new contribution — a MORRISON MONDAYS BONUS! (His regular MORRISON MONDAYS column can be found here. Right on. — Dan
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By BILL MORRISON
In honor of Ringo Starr’s 85th trip around the sun, I’d like to share this rare image from my archives, in which Ringo encounters Batman in Liverpool! It’s an unused drawing, courtesy of Heinz Edelmann, the designer of the Beatles’ 1968 film, Yellow Submarine, and was created early on during the production of the film. Batmania was still in full swing (pun absolutely intended!) when this drawing was done, probably in the latter half of 1967, so it’s not surprising that Edelmann would have thought of incorporating the Caped Crusader into the scene where Ringo is wandering around Liverpool, followed by Captain Fred in the sub.
The image was just one of many ideas for the film that flowed from Edelmann’s pen, but was never animated.
This color image came to me courtesy of my friend, Dr. Robert R. Hieronimus, author of Inside the Yellow Submarine: The Making of the Beatles’ Animated Classic, and the follow-up book, It’s All in the Mind: Inside The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine Vol. 2.
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MORE
— YELLOW SUBMARINE: The Voyage From Screen to Page. Click here.
— BATMAN MEETS THE BEATLES: He Came in Through the Bat-Room Window. Click here.
July 7, 2025
That is delightfully surreal. And even more surreal had it been animated. And even more and more surreal if it could have been in the movie. And even the most surreal, if Adam West could voice Batman. As someone who “gets by with a little help from my friends,” it would be great to have Ringo referred to by Bats as his “good chum.”
July 8, 2025
I wonder what the Beatles thought of the the Batman cover featuring the group. Happy Birthday Ringo