Posted By Dan Greenfield on Nov 18, 2024 | 5 comments

MORRISON MONDAYS!

By BILL MORRISON

When Matt Groening, Steve Vance, Cindy Vance, and I were planning our launch for a new comic book company called Bongo in the early months of 1993, I was tasked with coming up with some promotional ideas to let the public know that an entire line of Simpsons comic books was headed their way. Steve suggested that we try some classic comic-book cover parodies, so I started making Simpsons-centric sketches based on some of the most iconic comics images of the past.

One that rose to the top of my list of favorites was Neal Adams and Dick Giordano’s cover to 1971’s DC 100-Page Super Spectacular #6, which featured a Who’s Who of DC superheroes with the Big Three — Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman — in a spotlight. I marveled at it as a kid and only as a young adult realized that they were paying tribute to the Golden Age cover of 1943’s All-Star Comics #16, by Frank Harry.

Apparently, the cover was popular with the rest of the Bongo crew as well. It was decided that we would use my tribute drawing of a whole crowd of Simpsons characters, with the subjects of our four soon-to-premiere titles in a spotlight, to herald the coming of Bongo.

The image appeared on store posters, magazine advertisements, postcards, etc., and we even made it the cover of a limited-edition hardcover collection of all four first-issues (Simpsons Comics, Bartman, Radioactive Man, and Itchy & Scratchy Comics) titled Bongo Comics Group Spectacular. The book has become a rare collectible as it was limited to 1,000 copies and only available as a retailer incentive.

Obviously, Neal and Dick’s image and the original All-Star Comics version made an indelible impression on me, because in 2010 when I was thinking about cover variants for the first issue of Comic Book Guy: The Comic Book (see Morrison Mondays, May 27, 2024) I went back to it and drew a version with Jeff Albertson in the spotlight.

I don’t recall why I ended up rejecting this image but it may have been for the lack of a good gag. I also don’t remember why Martin is dressed as Starman, so please don’t ask! Anyway, I had gone as far as the tight pencil drawing and I recently discovered it in a drawer and decided to give it some ink and color.

I also recently found some of my original Bongo launch sketches (see paragraph one) in a drawer as well, but I’ll save those for next week, along with the tale of how one of those doodles ended up netting Bongo our first Eisner Award!

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