MORRISON MONDAYS!
By BILL MORRISON
This week I decided to feature my cover to the second Simpsons Comics trade paperback, Simpsons Comics Spectacular, which is an homage to two Golden Age Batman covers. Batman #42 is the first Golden Age Batman comic I ever bought, and I was inspired by the gimmick of the Dynamic Duo pulling back the cover to reveal a clawing Catwoman. This issue itself was a swipe of the cover to Batman #14 from five years earlier, featuring the Penguin.
Jack Burnley pencils, Charles Paris inks
Jerry Robinson
These two Batman issues made me wonder if there have been more covers employing this device over the decades, but so far I’ve only found these three (mine included).
Yet, there must be more! I can’t be the only artist who’s found this artifice delightful and worthy of parody. Wouldn’t it be fun to see a column titled “13 Pulling Back the Cover Comics” (or a better headline that Dan will come up with)?
This is where you come in! Who knows comics better than 13th Dimension’s faithful readers? We only need 10 more, so, if you know of a comic cover that features a character drawing it back to reveal something inside the book, let me know!
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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 1, 2025
Would you count the original (1949) Superboy #1? It doesn’t reveal a villain, as in your examples, but Superman encourages readers to turn the page and learn about his life as a boy.
September 1, 2025
There is “What If? #1 (Feb. 1977) — The FF and Spider-Man”. It’s not a pull back but it’s close. Then the famous “The Brave and the Bold #124” where Aparo draws the page on the cover. I’m sure you found these two too…..my initial thought was for sure Disney characters or maybe someone like Mighty Mouse would have used that trick. All I’ve got so far….
September 1, 2025
Action #443 by Nick Cardy.
September 1, 2025
https://files1.comics.org//img/gcd/covers_by_id/0/w400/968.jpg?
September 2, 2025
Excellent one! Very recognizable too. Has to be others…
September 4, 2025
I can think of three related ones. Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #1 from 1940 features Donald Duck pulling back the cover. This image has been reused for other books by Taschen, etc. In 2016 an homage cover was done for the Walt Disney Comics and Stories 75th Anniversary issue. And in 2022 a similar cover was done for Walt Disney’s Donald Duck free comic book day book, featuring Donald under the cover, flipping it up with Uncle Scrooge on the cover itself.