Bill Morrison (comics)
Bill Morrison | |
---|---|
![]() Bill Morrison at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con | |
Born | 1959 (age 61–62) Lincoln Park, Michigan |
Nationality | American |
Area(s) | Writer, Artist, Editor |
Notable works | Bongo Comics MAD magazine |
Bill Morrison (born 1959) is an American comic book artist, writer, and editor. He is a co-founder of Bongo Comics (along with Matt Groening and Steve and Cindy Vance).
Early life[]
Morrison is a native of Lincoln Park, Michigan, a Downriver suburb of Detroit. He attended the College for Creative Studies.[citation needed]
Career[]
At the beginning of his career in the early 1980s, Morrison worked as a technical illustrator for Artech, Inc. (Livonia, Michigan) before going to work as an illustrator for Disney, where he created promotional art for:
- Lady and the Tramp
- Cinderella
- Bambi
- Peter Pan
- The Jungle Book
- Robin Hood
- The Rescuers
- The Fox and the Hound
- Oliver & Company
- The Little Mermaid (including a controversial image)
- “Roller Coaster Rabbit”
- “The Prince and the Pauper”
- The Rescuers Down Under[1]
Subsequently, he worked as an illustrator and occasional writer for The Simpsons and created his own comic Roswell. He also served as a director for Futurama.[2]
Morrison was the creative director of Bongo Comics from 1993 to 2012.[citation needed]
In 1998, Morrison illustrated (although it was signed by Matt Groening) the cover artwork of The Simpsons' The Yellow Album. His cover was a parody of the cover art for the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, replaced with characters from The Simpsons.[3][4] In 2005, the artist and designer Kaws (commissioned by Nigo) created The Kaws Album, a "traced interpretation" of The Yellow Album. In 2019, Sotheby's auction house in Hong Kong sold The Kaws Album for 115.9 million Hong Kong dollars, or about $14.7 million U.S. dollars, a new auction record for the artist at the time.[5][6] Morrison felt "ripped off" by this,[7] re-igniting a conversation about the appropriation of commercial illustrations for fine art (see Roy Lichtenstein).
Morrison is an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA); he created the mural A Century of Values to celebrate the BSA centennial in 2010.[8]
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Yellow Submarine, The Beatles' 1968 animated feature film, Titan Comics published, on August 28, 2018, a hardcover comicbook illustrated by Morrisson.[9]
He was the executive editor of MAD magazine from early 2018 (beginning with the rebooted issue #1 dated June 2018) to March 2019.[10][11]
References[]
- ^ Lien, Barb. "TV The Whole Family Can Read! Bill Morrison, Bongo Comics' Editor," Sequential Tart (Nov. 1999).
- ^ "electrifyingtimes". Archived from the original on October 6, 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2010.
- ^ Adair, Torsten. "KAWS made $14 million from Bill Morrison art, and Morrison isn’t happy: When copies of comics art appear in glass houses, should creators throw stones?", The Beat (11/19/2019).
- ^ "KAWS Painting Sold for Record Breaking HK$116m at Sotheby's NIGO Sale," The Value, 1 April 2019. Accessed 15 June 2020.
- ^ Kaws Auction Record $14.7 Million. Artnews, Annie Armstrong, 1 April 2019. Accessed 12 May 2019
- ^ "Millennials in Hoodies Spend $28 Million on Simpsons Art". www.bloomberg.com. April 1, 2019. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
- ^ "I have joined Russ Heath, John Romita, Mike Sekowsky, Tony Abruzzo, and many other comic artists who have been ripped off by "fine artists."". November 19, 2019.
- ^ "The Mural". A Century of Values. Retrieved February 6, 2009.
- ^ "EXCLUSIVE: BILL MORRISON DIVES INTO TITAN COMICS' NEW THE BEATLES: YELLOW SUBMARINE GRAPHIC NOVEL". SYFYWire. Retrieved September 8, 2018.
- ^ Bill Morrison at LinkedIn.com. Retrieved on November 23, 2020. Archived from the original on November 23, 2020. "VP Executive Editor, MAD Magazine, Jun 2017 – 2019. Art Director, Seriously Digital Entertainment, Mar 2019 – Nov 2019."
- ^ Pedersen, Erik (January 23, 2019). "DC Comics Lays Off Seven Staffers Including SVPs In Restructuring". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
External links[]
![]() |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bill Morrison (comics). |
- comiXology.com's podcast with Bill Morrison and Scott Shaw on the Captain Carrot and the Final Ark limited series
- American comics creator stubs
- 1959 births
- Living people
- People from Lincoln Park, Michigan
- College for Creative Studies alumni
- Mad (magazine) people