A MORRISON MONDAYS birthday tribute!
By BILL MORRISON
On this day in in 1927, Steve Ditko was born! Imagine if that had never happened. We wouldn’t have the Amazing Spider-Man, or Dr. Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts! No Creeper or Hawk and Dove either!
I wanted to draw a Ditko homage for today’s column, in tribute to his fantastic creations, but a couple of pesky jobs got in the way of my play time. Then, I remembered a cover I did for 2005’s Simpsons Super Spectacular #1, a flip cover actually, featuring Bongo’s Atomic Avenger, Radioactive Man.
At the time, the Irradiated Crusader’s exploits were being penned by the late, great Batton Lash, and he had written and drawn a fun retelling of RM’s origin story for the issue, plus two more tales, all in the style of Steve Ditko (with inks by none other than Michael T. Gilbert). Bat also provided me with a rough layout for the cover, an homage to Ditko’s co-creation (with Joe Gill,) Captain Atom.
My final image parodies the cover of Charlton’s Strange Suspense Stories #75 (June 1965), which features a Ditko drawing of Captain Atom that was lifted from the first appearance of the character in Space Adventures #33 (March 1960).
Issue #75
I don’t know if Matt Groening or the Simpsons show writers were inspired by Captain Atom when they came up with Radioactive Man, but given their similarities, Ditko’s co-creation was a perfect target for us to parody in one of Ol’ Bolt Head’s exploits, and I’m glad Batton thought of it.
If you can find the super-size, 52-page first issue, I highly recommend it. Batton and Michael showed a lot of love for Mr. Ditko, including a great Gorgo parody, “Radioactive Man and Roargo.”
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Want more MORRISON MONDAYS? Come back next week! Want a commission? See below!
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MORE
— Oh, Boy! I Got Me a ‘New’ 1960s BEN COOPER BATMAN Play Suit! Click here.
— BERNIE WRIGHTSON’s JENIFER Still Haunts Me — More Than 50 YEARS Later. 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.
November 2, 2026
Great book. But I am reminded of still feeling let down over the crash of the digital services for Simpsons and Futurama material. A huge loss. There is no parody better than Radioactive Man as the character continued in more than one story unlike the one shot EC Mad Captain Marbles vs Superdooperman. That had great potential tho.