THE SIMPSONS’ Wonderful Tribute to DONALD DUCK and His Great Artists

MORRISON MONDAYS!

By BILL MORRISON

One of the things that Bongo Comics did that the Simpsons TV series has mostly avoided was to parody other comic books. At Bongo, we knew that our audience was more comics-savvy than the wider mainstream TV viewers, so we had the freedom to make references and pay homage to some of our favorite books without worrying that our readers wouldn’t get the jokes. So when Simpsons comics scribe Ian Boothby pitched a story that parodied a typical Donald Duck treasure hunt from the pages of Dell’s Walt Disney Comics and Stories series, I was immediately on board!

The story pays tribute to Carl Barks’ classic Duck comics and perfectly casts Montgomery Burns in the Uncle Scrooge role, with Homer and the three Simpsons kids standing in for Donald and his nephews. Ian’s story is packed with clever references to Barks and his sagas, and even includes nods to other Disney comics creators with locales such as “The Island of Donrosa,” “Mount Van Horn,”  and “The Gottfredson Trench!”

The scene that has Homer showing up for the adventure in his sailor suit, sans pants, is worth the price of admission alone.

I found the perfect cover to parody for the issue, that of 1947’s Four Color #159 by Carl Buettner, and it nearly drew itself! The interior art for Simpsons #102 is by John Delaney (pencils) and Andrew Pepoy (inks), and though it doesn’t attempt to mimic the Barks style, it perfectly captures the spirit of humor mixed with adventure that “The Good Duck Artist” was known for.

Want more MORRISON MONDAYS? Come back next week! Want a commission? See below!

MORE

— ALL YOU NEED IS GLOVE: What If Marvel Had Published YELLOW SUBMARINE. Click here.

— When RADIOACTIVE MAN Went to KIRBY and ROYER’s FOURTH WORLD. Click here.

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.

Author: Dan Greenfield

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1 Comment

  1. Oh that is wonderful! I read a ton of the Gold Key reprints in the 60s-70s and loved them! I didn’t read Simpsons Comics; looks like I should have!

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