BATMAN PINUPALOOZA Meets MORRISON MONDAYS!
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Welcome to BATMAN PINUPALOOZA, a 60th anniversary celebration of the seven seminal 1966 Batman pinups by penciller Carmine Infantino and inker Murphy Anderson that in large measure became the definitive versions of the Dynamic Duo and their venal villains for years to come.
This is a 13th Dimension theme week unlike any we’ve done before: Each of our artists — Kerry Callen, Bill Morrison, Des Taylor, Walt Grogan (who did that fab banner), Chris Franklin, Dakota Alexander and Franco — is reimagining at least one of the pinups every day this week, with equal parts reverence, whimsy and humor. For more on BATMAN PINUPALOOZA and the history of these pinups, click here. — Dan
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By BILL MORRISON
My homage to the 1966 Batmobile pin-up by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson features Bart Simpson’s favorite caped crime-fighters, Radioactive Man and Fallout Boy in place of the Dynamic Duo.
In all the years that Bongo published Radioactive Man comics, I regret that we never gave him a cool supercar. We could have had a lot of fun lampooning stories in which characters endowed with flight, super-speed, or the ability to swing through town on webbing, added a superfluous automobile to their crime-fighting arsenal. But I’m happy to have this opportunity to draw the unnecessary Radioactive-mobile that might have been!
Just as George Barris customized the 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car to create the 1966 TV Batmobile, I based my atomic coupe upon the 1952 Manta Ray concept car, fashioned by aircraft designers Glenn Hire and Vernon Antoine.
I added a bubble top with ports to allow the Nuclear Knight and his sidekick’s capes to flutter out behind them, thus avoiding the annoying wrinkles that occur when superheroes are forced to sit on their cloaks. I also added tail fins, just because they’re cool, and a giant lightning bolt atop the bubble, which either reduces or adds to wind resistance, I’m not quite sure which. (Hey, I’m a cartoonist, not an aerodynamics engineer!)
My Radioactive-mobile image was colored by our pal Walt Grogan, who also turned in this “aged” version. Which do you like better?
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Want more BATMAN PINUPALOOZA? Click here!
Want more MORRISON MONDAYS? Come back next week! Want a commission? See below!
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MORE
— The Complete BATMAN PINUPALOOZA Index. Click here.
— INSANE HEADLINES FROM 1989: BATMAN-CRAZY Hubby Forces His Wife to Dress Like ROBIN. 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.
