MORRISON MONDAYS!
By BILL MORRISON
This piece admittedly doesn’t have much of a story behind it. I drew it in 2018 as part of a National Cartoonists Society exhibit to honor Popeye’s 90th birthday and Olive Oyl’s 100th. The art was then auctioned, along with the other NCS Popeye tributes, to benefit the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The idea behind the gag (if you can call it that) is simply my way of making sense of a senseless situation. I never bought the idea that Olive can’t choose between Bluto or Popeye. I always knew there had to be a believable explanation for her wishy-washiness, and I think manipulation and deceit are highly plausible reasons.
Now one might argue that it makes more sense to show Olive choosing to be with Popeye rather than Bluto, but in keeping with the traditional design of the DC romance covers that this piece honors, that would have made it necessary to put Bluto in the foreground in the role of the jilted lover (and star of the cover). After all, this piece was for Popeye’s anniversary, not Bluto’s!
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MORE
— BATMAN #251 and Bizarro Wrestler DANHAUSEN — The Perfect Match. Click here.
— The Demise of CAPS — and a Tribute to STAN SAKAI. 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.
September 23, 2024
This actually makes more sense than Bluto becoming a regular character in the strip only after the Fleischers wanted a continual antagonist and resurrected the one-shot Bluto – who barely appeared in the chapter showing his reputation “wassn’t so hot.” IIRC he didn’t return to the strip until well after Segar’s death. At least I didn’t see him in the strips by Doc Winner. I never thought to ask Bud Sagendorf, but I assumed Bud brought him back to the newspapers, since he’d used Bluto in his comic books since the early Dell days.
No, I still don’t know why I didn’t ask more questions of my friends who worked in my favorite comics. I never was shy about bothering my other heroes such as Don Duncan or other yoyologists. Just stupid, I guess.
September 23, 2024
LOL!