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Episode 693 - Pitching the Kids f/ Bill Morrison
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Longtime Simpsons Comics writer and artist Bill Morrison joins us for the show this week to talk about his new collection of The Complete Roswell Little Green Man, funding now on Zoop! We also talk about his unusual journey into comics, what he considers his art style, and much more!
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Transcript
00:00:20
Speaker
Terminator X's!
00:00:25
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to War Rocket Ajax. This is the Internet's most destructive comic book and pop culture podcast, and we are your hosts. My name is Chris Sims. With me, as always, is Matt Wilson. And Matt, if I had to get some hench work, if that was my new career,
00:00:45
Speaker
i Think I would fit in best with the Riddler because You would help him create puzzles. I like because I like puzzles. I like puns I am Okay at them So I would he yeah I don't think he'd see me as a threat. Oh, okay, but I but you know, I'm i'm good at the crossword and And I like anagrams and ah and puns a lot. I could really get a lot out of a job opportunity with the Riddler. Plus, you're fighting Batman, so you're not gonna die. That's true. That's a good point. And you're not working for the Joker, so Joker's not gonna kill you. I guess there's an outside chance that Riddler could kill you.
00:01:34
Speaker
Yeah, but only like, not if he's like a good classic Riddler. Yeah, that's true. i I wonder how much the Riddler would let his hench people get involved in puzzle development, because I feel that that that guy's got to be a real micromanager. Probably, probably. Who are you the ideal hench mat for?
00:01:59
Speaker
This is a good question. This is, you know, I've thought about this before and have always had a hard time kind of landing on a choice because at heart I feel like I should be the supervillain. Like I should be the henchman who breaks off and and and and starts my own supervillain operation. um i I did write some books about that.
00:02:27
Speaker
Yes, but bless you yeah but if I had to hinge, I think I would want something that's kind of like as chill as possible. Mr. Freeze.
00:02:44
Speaker
Now that now that's one where you're going to have some on the job hazards. For sure. Yeah, yeah. Let's see. Matt, I mean this in the nicest way. Yeah. I do think you have a lot of strengths in organizing, editing. Like, obviously, you're an ideas guy. I'm not saying you couldn't be a supervillain. I'm saying you'd be a great henchman as well, if that's what you tried to do. And look, maybe for some reason, I was just thinking about maybe needing to get a job. That's fair. right yeah the The thing about henchmen, though, like,
00:03:25
Speaker
They're not often come to four ideas. They're... Yeah, but I think you have to facilitate. Sure, that's true. Maybe poison ivy would be fun to hench for. You know, you get to hang out in greenhouses and stuff, although I do have allergies. I don't think that would work so well for me. Yeah, yeah. What's hard is coming up with villains who actually have hench people.
00:03:55
Speaker
Yeah, villains don't villains don't have goons the way they used to. they They don't. They don't hire. I don't want to say the word goons, but that is the word for it. That's the word. That's the word. And and I don't care what else it means now. It's been co-opted and it's all wrong. Henchmen. Hench people. Hench people. Yeah. Henches.
00:04:20
Speaker
It feels like the the villains who have the most hench people are, you know, okay, you know who I'd be a hench person for? ah Lex Luthor. Because you get to be part of a corporate structure that I would assume grants you benefits.
00:04:40
Speaker
yeah ah I mean, yeah, I guess, but like, you know he's a union buster. Oh, obviously, but you get to work for LexCorp, and at minimum, you get health insurance. Yeah, I guess that's true. And also, you know, Superman is probably gonna, you know, I will say this, if I'm working for the Riddler, if the Riddler is not in my visual range, if I can't see the Riddler, I'm not fighting Batman.
00:05:08
Speaker
Batman shows up, I'm gonna be like, yo, he went that away. Like, Batman's not gonna kill you, but he will fuck you up. No, yeah, Batman'll fuck you up, which is why I would be like, unless I see the Riddler, I'm not taking a swing. I am telling him everything he needs to know. I am asking like, hey, how's Robin doing these days? I'm getting on good terms with Batman, because he knows it's hard out here in these streets. He sure does. ah Hey, we have a great show for everybody this week. Bill Morrison,
00:05:41
Speaker
long-time writer and artist of many bongo comics, but people probably know him best from Simpsons Comics, is on the show ah to talk to us about ah his new crowdfunding project on Zoop for the complete adventures of Roswell Little Green Man. It is the collected Adventures collected comics about a Bill's creator own character from Bongo ah Which is a great-looking collection that everybody should go back and we have a great conversation with Bill about his interesting way of getting into comics and kind of his his ah modest comics dreams of his youth
00:06:37
Speaker
ah it is It is a great conversation and and you should stick around and listen to it. But before we talk to Bill, ah Chris, we do have some business to take care of here at the top of the show, starting with thanking our newest supporters over on Patreon. That's right, Matt. I think ideally I would want to work my way up to becoming the fourth enforcer. Of course. You you want to have a management position, even if you can't be the supervillain. I think you would make a great enforcer and I think your name would be barbecue.
00:07:08
Speaker
Mmm, this means that that means I got to work for like Professor Pig though if my name is barbecue No, but like you had you I mean the enforcers they work for I mean, I guess they work for the kingpin, which isn't great um Not great. The kingpin will absolutely kill you the kingpin will kill you and also daredevil with like even if you're like Hey, man, do you want that away? Derek like you don't know what daredevil you're gonna get you don't know if you're gonna run into Punisher Yeah ah Bad news. A lot of dangers. but But I think the prestige is worth it. I'll tell you what else is prestigious, Matt, and that's what what happens when you go all the way down to 693 gimmick street. You know what's there. Let's see. There was a showbiz pizza at 692. I forgot to guess there was. There was a laser tagarita slash
00:08:05
Speaker
Trampoline Park. Trampoline Park at 691. Obviously Putt-Putt is at 693. Putt-Putt is at 693. And while you're waiting for the family ahead of you to get through each little Putt-Putt course, each hole of Putt-Putt, is Putt-Putt copyright? Is this one of the things where like you have to call it a water scooter instead of calling it a jet ski? I think it Putt-Putt was a brand name ah And so they have to call it miniature golf everywhere miniature golf. Yeah, but this is a this is a putt-putt TM That's a gimmick Street. Hmm. Yeah Yeah, so while you're there, why don't you get out that? Internet-enabled device that you always have on you it It's probably the device on which you're listening to this very show Open up that web browser and direct it to patreon dot.com slash war rocket Ajax that
00:09:01
Speaker
is where you can help support the show. Help me and Matt keep doing the show, keep doing the Every Story, Every Specials, keep paying those gimmicks they keep sending mail called bills, because they do keep sending them. They sure do. ah This is currently my job. but Here are our newest Patreon supporters, Chris. Oliver Harper. ah Thank you, Oliver. Zachary Jenkins. Thank you, Zachary. And David from Norway. Thank you, David.
00:09:30
Speaker
Uh, if you would like to be like any of those folks, Oliver, Zachary or David, uh, and help us out here on the show, you can, as Chris said, head over to patreon dot.com slash where rocket Ajax and kick in as little as $1 per month to make sure that we do this show every week, that we do every story ever specials monthly, that we do comics, catch up, which comics catch up. If I can get my schedule, right. Has already gone up by the time this episode goes up.
00:09:58
Speaker
our comics catch up about Batman the Shadow, ah which I thought was a very interesting conversation about that that six issue series, which led to further comics catch ups over the next couple of months. So definitely check that out. But that's made possible by your support on Patreon, movie fighters and snack situation, all of those shows are made possible ah by your help. And as a patron, you get every single one of those shows, totally ad free in a special feed.
00:10:26
Speaker
on Patreon just for you. You can also get at various levels so bonus content that includes stuff that we record, especially for the Patreon. That includes writing that Chris and I have done on the Patreon. That includes a spreadsheet that Chris has made where he's talking about every Survivor's Light game he's ever played called Spreadsheet Survivors. Recently updated. Recently updated. So go look at that if you haven't lately. At other levels, there's line stepping privileges for our segments, which currently are Thursday Night Raw and Every Story Ever.
00:11:04
Speaker
And there's physical rewards. If you were at the t-shirt level and you gave me your size, you should have a t-shirt on the way to you right now. um So watch your mailbox if you're at the t-shirt level. If you are at the t-shirt level and you did not give me your t-shirt size, send it to me. Hopefully I have a shirt I can send to you ah because I have some sizes. I have a few shirts in every size left.
00:11:34
Speaker
but they're limited. So if you want your t-shirt, get in touch with me and I'll try to get it shipped to you as as soon as I can.
00:11:45
Speaker
If you cannot help us out monetarily, which we understand there are reasons why that may be the case. You can help us out in other ways. You can leave us a five star review on the podcasting app that you use, or, uh, you can leave, you can spread the word about the show, tell your friends about the show, tell your family, let them know, uh, there's a podcast you like and that they will probably like as well called war rocket Ajax, and then tell them to donate to our Patreon. They can help us out. I bet Chris with that.
00:12:15
Speaker
It's time for some checks and recs. What do you say? Let's do it.
00:12:20
Speaker
Chris, what would you like to check in with this week? Well, Matt, ah as we talked about on the last episode of the show, and I think on the episode before that, which doesn't make me not feel like a narcissist, ah it was my birthday um this past week. Hey, birthdays birthdays are not just one day. They they they last a while.
00:12:42
Speaker
Yes, I keep the spirit of my birthday in my heart all year round. You should. oh And I had a lot of fun. I watched a bunch of bad episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation, because that's what I was craving. I was like, I really, really want to watch Bev Crusher fuck that candle ghost. I really do. And that's what I did. I watched that. I watched WrestleMania 17 with a friend.
00:13:09
Speaker
X7. Sorry, WrestleMania X7, yes. Look, I keep calling it WrestleMania 17, but those Arabic numerals, bam, they non-factor. That's true. ah A classic, a fantastic time, had a nice dinner. ah But I did a lot of celebrating over the weekend, too. And one of the things I did that was honestly a birthday celebration was ah that I decided to sit down and write an essay that I have been wanting to write for a year or more. And as I mentioned on last week's episode, the ISB, my old comics blog, kind of went when boom a little bit. And I just wound up deleting everything that had been there.
00:14:05
Speaker
And originally, I've talked about this essay before, but originally I was planning on putting it up on the Ajax Patreon. But it wound up being 5500 words long. And I wound up writing it right after I had deleted everything else. So I kind of wanted something to be on my website. So I put it up.
00:14:27
Speaker
So if you have ah missed the the things that I ah used to write every single day over at Comics Alliance, or the stuff that I used to write at Looper even, or the stuff that I used to write on my blog, there is a new piece up there for you. And Matt, you have said some very nice things about it, which I appreciated. It is a very well-written essay.
00:14:51
Speaker
um Very much. I absolutely recommend you do it. The way you phrased that, I know you meant that entirely positively, just the way you phrased that in your tone made it sound like like that pull quote from Will Eisner where he says something is interesting and readable. This is my curse, ah sounding insincere, but I 100% am. That circumspect attitude that you have. Yes.
00:15:18
Speaker
But yeah, it's ah it's up there. You said some nice things. Benito said some nice things. ah Benito, I believe, it's just said, the kid is back. but Which is very funny to hear on my 42nd birthday. It goes into my attitude towards saying things are the best versus saying things are a favorite, and how I weirdly have that backwards.
00:15:39
Speaker
from ah the way that it probably should be. I don't know if I'll ever put anything up there again. I probably will, but I might not. I kinda have something that I wanna write that I know no one's gonna pay me for. And I did actually threaten, not threaten, I came up with, ah during my birthday dinner when I was describing it to people who did not know about it, I thought of the idea of putting my review of Tarot, which of the Black Rose number 53 back up, but that's going to go on the Ajax Patreon. I think that's ah at the $30 level. I think that's a great idea. Yeah. Uh, so yeah, I wrote a new piece and it was very fun. Uh, if you read it, I hope you enjoy it. If you don't read it, that's fine, but you should, you should read it. Matt, what have you been up to? Uh, while I've been, uh, finding new ways to occupy all this free time, I certainly have. Well, Chris, uh,
00:16:36
Speaker
On the show last week, I mentioned that I have been playing, uh, Yakuza, like a dragon. And I have continued to play that game. Um, cause there's a lot of that game to play. Man, oh man, there's a Yakuza games. They give you a lot of game yeah in those games. And I have been, um, look, I'd not say this is a good thing about me.
00:17:06
Speaker
But if you tell me to play this thing as part of a game and that there's like a checkbox to check off by doing it, I'll try it. So I have tried basically every minigame in Yakuza Like a Dragon. Chris, would you like to take a guess at which minigame is my favorite?
00:17:31
Speaker
Oh, I can't remember all the minigames in in that one specifically. I know there's the the can collecting one, which I actually liked a lot. It's pretty fun, yeah. And I'm sure they've got mahjong in there because they have that in all of them, I think. they it There are multiple gambling games and and tile games and card games, yeah. Casino stuff, yeah. Mahjong, which I think I could start now and spend the rest of my life and never understand.
00:18:02
Speaker
What, Matt, is your favorite? My favorite minigame, the one that I would just play as a separate game on its own. You know, as as known, I famously loved Gwent from Witcher. The Witcher 3, the Wild Hunt. But the minigame in Yakuza, Like a Dragon, that I'm like, they should just make this a game, is the business management game. Oh, yeah, that that one is a good one.
00:18:29
Speaker
because ah the way that it is structured is so fun. You hire employees, you assign them to properties that you've bought, which you can sell properties and buy new ones that make more profits, but you assign employees to properties that you bought, you run like four weeks of business or four business periods,
00:18:56
Speaker
And then you have a board or a shareholders meeting where you have to appease the shareholders. Uh-huh. And there's a whole mini game of like the shareholders asking you like accusatory questions and you have to like shout them down. Yeah, but you have to pick the right way to shout them down. Yes. You have to have your employees do it and you have to bring the right employees to the shareholder meeting.
00:19:25
Speaker
to do it right, it's great. And like once I got the hang of it and was doing it, i it's all I wanted to do. Buddy, I will tell you this for free. You are gonna love the other Yakuza games. Yeah. But like ah once I got to the like the whole point of the game is to Um, get your stock to a certain level so that you're the number one ranked company. Like you're the company with the highest stock. And once I got there and there was kind of nothing left to do in that mini game, I was bummed out. Yeah. Like I maxed out that mini game as soon as I could. Um, I still have a good chunk of the main game to finish. Uh, I just got to the part where.
00:20:19
Speaker
you finally go to another location, like you go to Osaka. So I'm at that part of the main game. ah But boy, did I exhaust that business management mini game. Yeah, that it's really fun. I think it's Yakuza zero that has the ah cabaret club manager.
00:20:43
Speaker
minigame that also conceals within it a secret dating sim. But it is very much the same thing of like, yeah, I would play it like if they put this on a phone and I would play it all the time. Yeah. Yeah. ah I know that there's a secret dating sim in like a dragon as well. Yeah.
00:21:00
Speaker
I haven't done much of that, but ah I'm going to. ah So that's what I've been up to, Chris. Time to make some some recommendations. What do you have to recommend? um Matt, my recommendation this week is something else that I did ah this past weekend in celebration of my birthday, but it is also a recommendation you have already made. And that is I i knocked out all of Batman, the Caped Crusader, and found it to be a very enjoyable time.
00:21:27
Speaker
I really like the the very 1940s aesthetic of everything. I really love the idea of using the like original design of Clayface from Clayface's first appearance. I was not expecting my girl, Nocturna, to show up. That was a pull. That was a pull for ah an episode villain, for sure. i was i was like I texted you a minute. I was like, hell yes.
00:21:56
Speaker
Yeah. Nocturna's here. And she is a vampire who wants custody of Jason Todd. Every Robin. All all of the kids in that episode are named for Robins. Yeah, there's Dickey, Jay, Stiffy, and Carrie. Yeah. And i the Carrie Kelly depiction rules. It does. Yeah, I agree. She is a good soldier. I had a lot of fun with it. Also, like,
00:22:25
Speaker
Maybe the, I don't know if it's best, probably creepiest Two-Face design, even like for like, if you count like the Aaron Eckhart stuff, like it's, it wasn't what I was expecting when you finally see it. It's very different from Batman the Animated Series and it's very different from most comics depictions of Two-Face. Yeah. Cause he's just got a fucked up face.
00:22:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's just fucked up, which is really, it's good. I really enjoyed it. Like, I also thought it was weird that Batman was so mean and called Alfred Pennyworth, but that did wind up being an arc. A character arc, yeah. Yeah. I appreciated the way that that arc uh, resolved. There's also something in the finale, the season finale that ruled so hard. I stood up and walked around. I just cut something. My, that part that I thought ruled in the season finale and made it BOCO. So if you're on the Patreon, you got that BOCO. Um, but yes, Batman and the Cape crusade Batman, Crip Cape crusader. Um, I, I, it's been getting some mixed reviews, I think, but I think both of us enjoyed it a lot.
00:23:44
Speaker
Yeah, no, I thought it was pretty solid all the way through. um The Onomatopoeia episode, Onomatopoeia, it's not the worst episode. ah It might be the worst episode. He's definitely the worst villain. it's the worst that's it That was what was kind of kind of like holding me back from being excited about it at all.
00:24:04
Speaker
but definitely the worst villain, but the premise of the episode, like honestly, barely a factor in the episode. So that's fine. Yeah. Uh, and I really, I really liked, uh, the Harley Quinn in this one too, even though, and I will say this as a big fan of, of Batman 66 and someone who recently watched Batman Returns not too long ago,
00:24:34
Speaker
That's the kinkiest Batman story I've ever seen. It's the Harley Quinn episode. It is a very different take on Harley Quinn. I could tell you what is depicted in this. I don't know if you would believe me. ah Forget about an EGOT, they're going for an ABDL.
00:25:06
Speaker
ah But yeah, I did really enjoy it. I thought it was a ah very fun time. ah So yeah, if ah I do think there are, there are probably, there's probably reasonable complaints about it. Sure. But like, overall, I thought it was very, very enjoyable and a good time. Yeah. Matt, what is your recommendation this week?
00:25:28
Speaker
My recommendation is a movie that I finally watched after hearing a lot about it and, uh, kind of waiting for it to be an affordable rental price. Um, it is, I saw the TV glow, um, which is probably the most like kind of buzzed about horror movie of the year. Um, and I think a lot of it is earned. It is a great concept for a movie. The, the.
00:25:57
Speaker
idea is that the the lead character, whose name is Owen, meets an older teenage girl ah named Maddie Wilson. Oh dear. that Gets into, through her, a Buffy-like television show. So so they're like teenagers in the 90s.
00:26:22
Speaker
And they get into a Buffy style television show called The Pink Opaque. It's kind of like part Buffy, part Twin Peaks. And they are both obsessed with it and Owen will sneak off to Maddie's house to watch it. And they you know they kind of end up building their whole lives around it. And then the show gets canceled and Maddie moves away.
00:26:51
Speaker
and life like totally changes. And a lot of the movie ends up being about kind of like what life is like after this show that you were such a huge fan of it's such a formative time in your life gets canceled like on a cliffhanger like the show ends at the end of its fifth season on a cliffhanger with no resolution.
00:27:17
Speaker
And eventually, Maddie begins to believe that she is one of the characters from the show and that she is living in the sixth season of The Pink Opaque. It's a fascinating movie. It's really well made. The director and writer is Jane Schoenbrunn.
00:27:37
Speaker
And, uh, clearly a lot of their personal identity is wrapped up in the movie that like, um, I think they've talked about that. And it is definitely a clear trans story allegory without totally being a trans story. I will say the very, very last scene of the movie.
00:28:04
Speaker
It's this really interesting and sad anti-climax that I have read a lot of different opinions about. And when I first saw it, I was kind of like, why did it end there and not a scene earlier? Because the scene earlier felt a lot more like an ending. But the more I've read about it, the more I've come to understand like,
00:28:30
Speaker
how sort of meaningful and important that last scene is um to the the allegory of it all. but But if you see it, be prepared should be like heavily bummed out by the very, very last scene.
00:28:43
Speaker
but It is, yeah I've, it is such a great concept for a movie. I cannot believe that there hasn't been a movie made about this premise before now, but I'm so I'm really glad that this one exists. Um, and I, I, it's one of those movies that I've been thinking about ever since I saw it. So if that sounds like your deal, and if you want to see Fred Durst play somebody's dad, I saw the TV glow.
00:29:13
Speaker
You know, Matt, you hadn't sold me on it until that. With that, Chris, it's time to talk about some comics. What do you say? Let's do it.
00:29:25
Speaker
ah There are multiple Textures Choice winners this week. All three comics we have texted each other about, ah Chris, but the one that I think is the top Textures Choice winner for the week has to be X Factor number one.
00:29:41
Speaker
which Benito texted us about first. Yes. ah This is ah by Mark Russell with art by Bob Quinn. And it is easily, easily my favorite X-Men from the Ashes title so far. Yeah, although I will say I i did enjoy the second issue of X-Men more than I enjoyed the first.
00:30:08
Speaker
Yeah, to the point where I feel like it should have just been the first issue. It it is the the second issue was definitely less focused on cleanup. I guess you could say but what I like about x factor. Number one is how the cleanup from Krakow is so important to this story. And the idea of of, you know, this group of mutants making a break from the Krakoa era is like central to it because they're all trying to be social media stars. It's kind of, this is kind of like, it's called X Factor, but it kind of
00:30:58
Speaker
ought to be called Ecstatics. It's Ecstatics, yeah. Like it is literally my three word review of this comic is ah Mark Russell Ecstatics.
00:31:08
Speaker
Which is not a complaint. Not at all, yeah. ah But it is very much the 2024 x-statics, which, you know, if you'll remember, was x-force. But yeah, like, there's a lot of x-statics in here. There's a lot of Youngblood in here hu as well, ah in a way that I think is is interesting.
00:31:30
Speaker
um But yeah, it's, I mean, it is, ah my text about this was just, it's the most Mark Russell book it in a while. In many ways it really is. it's It's got all those Mark Russell hallmarks of like an evil corporate guy who is also funny. Yeah.
00:31:56
Speaker
But like like, hey, you know what the bad guy is in this one? The military industrial complex and capitalism. Also that. Also, it pulls the trick. One of the other Mark Russell hallmarks is really good. Yeah, it also pulls the trick that I've seen in a few different things, including the movie, The Suicide Squad, where the team or the team at the start of this book is not the team at the end. Yeah.
00:32:24
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, but I, I enjoyed that as well. it good complex It's a really good comic. It's weird to say, but it is exactly what you like. but I think this is what Benito said. It's exactly what you'd expect, but not in a bad way. Yeah. But what are the things you would expect is that it's good. Yeah. It's, it is, it is as Mark Russell, a comic as it can be. Yeah.
00:32:55
Speaker
And and like there's good character stuff in it too. don't Don't get me wrong. The stuff with Havoc and Polaris is really good and clearly gonna fuel the story going forward. Yeah. I gotta know more about Granny Smite. I'm sure we will. I'm sure we will learn plenty about Granny Smite. I mean i think I kind of already know everything I need to know about Granny Smite, but I gotta know more.
00:33:25
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, the next book we're going to talk about is Amazing Spider-Man number 55, which you texted me about to say that I would like it. And you were right. This is, yeah I loved it. This is a single issue story. Uh, cause clearly Zeb Wells needed to fill an issue between, uh, the last story, the big green goblin story and the next story, uh, which is,
00:33:53
Speaker
number 950, legacy number 950. And ah hilariously, the cover of this issue has Spider-Man saving a family from a falling building. It's a John Rubina Jr. cover. It looks great. Has nothing to do with the story inside. Very like 2003 Marvel comics there. What the story inside is, is Peter Parker arrives late for a date.
00:34:20
Speaker
with a woman that he has been on two previous dates with because he's been Spider-Man. She doesn't know where he got his black eye. He can't explain it in a satisfactory way. Yeah. ah the ah The line that I really liked in this was, I'm gonna i'm going to be honest with you. I can't tell you. Yes.
00:34:45
Speaker
Then he sees Rhino and ah Screwball fighting through the window of the restaurant. after his date has said like, look, if you're, if you're not going to commit to this, like I, I did a all of my work as quickly as possible today. I went through a bunch of shit so I could get here on time because I care about this and I, I, like, I wanted to show you respect and you got here late. Yeah. And it's, I, I liked the way that it's phrased because it's like, look,
00:35:25
Speaker
yeah I know you feel responsible for everybody else, but you do you are always making choices about what you need to do. And if this is a thing that you want to do, you can't do everything. yeah So if you don't want to do it, don't. Like, if you want to do the other stuff, go do the other stuff. And Peter being like, I have to do the other stuff, though. And she's like, we all got shit we got to do. yeah Which, yeah, we're not all Spider-Man, but that's true. Yeah.
00:35:55
Speaker
So when he sees. Rhino and screwball fighting outside instead of going out as Spider-Man, he says, like, I have to go. And she's like, okay, I get, okay. So he goes to them as Peter instead of Spider-Man. And they're like, who's this guy? And he says to them, like, look, I'm on a date. I want this to work out.
00:36:24
Speaker
and you guys are ruining it, can you just stop? Like, can can can you make help this go right for me? Yeah, like, hey, it you guys are really fucking up a thing for me right now and I'm so tired. Yeah. And it's like, even the way Peter's drawn in that scene is like, he's so tired.
00:36:51
Speaker
Yeah, the the artist on this issue is um a guest artist, Emilio ah Lazo. And ah they do a great job, a really great job. And even when he's like changing into Spider-Man, like he's just, he's worn out. And Peter be like, it's always fun when Peter is like, gets real with somebody. Yeah. But like, I love that Peter's just like, Hey, can whatever you're doing is fucking it up for me. Yes. Can you just not today? and then The response of the villains is great. Yeah, the when he's so he goes outside and starts to become Spider-Man before he decides to just go approach them as Peter. And there's this one panel of him like with his shirt lifted up.
00:37:42
Speaker
And he's gotten on his Spider-Man costume underneath it and his stomach make is just like poking out. Like he's, he's just got kind of a gut sticking out and it's so Peter B. Parker. It's really good. Uh, yeah, I love this issue and I hope the whole like kind of romance that this issue starts isn't just a one-off thing. Like I hope.
00:38:08
Speaker
we see more of Shay is her name. yeah um Who works at Ravencroft? Yeah, she works at Ravencroft. Also, ah you know, props to Emilio Lizzo for making several pages of just two people on a date visually interesting. Yeah, because it is like a six panel grid, ah like very Bendis style talking heads. But it's, ah I really like that it's all Peter on the left side and Shay on the right side.
00:38:39
Speaker
Yeah. And so it is like very much a like ping pong back and forth. And you can look, you can pull that off as long as the art is expressive and the dialogue is interesting. And I think it really, really is here. So yeah, for sure. Another another issue issue of Spider-Man that you and me both think is fantastic. And I'm sure other people are going to hate because Spider-Man can't date anybody but Mary Jane, I guess. I mean, those people are going to be wrong. Yeah.
00:39:09
Speaker
But this is a good issue, and I liked it a lot. And I knew you would like it. It was great. I loved it, yeah. ah One last issue we're going to talk about is Fantastic Four, number 23, which is an issue you think is going to be about Dr. Doom being the Sorcerer Supreme, but is in fact not. It is a Johnny Storm narrated issue.
00:39:33
Speaker
about mysterious invisible particles falling to the earth and the Fantastic Four having to figure out what those are. Yes. ah the The money thing, the money element of this issue is something that I... The career that I've had and the life that I've had and the show that you and I have done, Matt, has afforded me a lot of things.
00:40:00
Speaker
And one of those things is that when I read this issue, I can just pop open the old Gmail and email Ryan Dorth. And I can say, hey, was it you or Carlos Gomez who specified that Johnny Storm should be wearing his bad, real bad shirt that he wears on that one issue of Daredevil by Anderson T and John Romita Jr.
00:40:28
Speaker
the black shirt that says bad on the front and real bad on the back. yeah And ah Ryan North emails me back and says, that was all Carlos and I was so thrilled when he made that choice. And I told him to please pass along my absolute delight.
00:40:46
Speaker
Sometimes it's nice, sometimes it's nice to just be able to email the writer of a comic about this one detail that you love. Also, he gets, Johnny gets a bunch of, of he splatters food all over that shirt. yeah Which he then burns off by turning into the human torch. I love the Johnny Storm narration in this issue. I love the revelation that this, ah these things falling from the sky are little tiny alien spaceships.
00:41:17
Speaker
I also love that the title of this issue is Johnny storm gets choked by an alien in this one. And it happens in the very last panel. Yes.
00:41:32
Speaker
Ryan, you did good. Good stuff. Good stuff from ah from all involved. Yes. ah It is it is ah Ryan North writing, as we said, and the art is by Carlos Gomez. Yeah, Carlos, you mentioned Carlos Gomez.
00:41:51
Speaker
came up with the idea to have it be the bad shirt, bad real bad. Yeah. The shirt that Johnny Storm wears when he goes into Josie's bar looking for Daredevil. And since he's Johnny Storm and he's looking for Daredevil, he knows he needs to look tough. So he puts on that shirt some jeans and sunglasses. I love that issue. Oh man. Interesting that this issue addresses the Dr. Doom of it all.
00:42:20
Speaker
Because I get the sense that the Dr. drewo Doom as Sorcerer Supreme stuff is going to be addressed elsewhere. Or that story is going to be picked up elsewhere. ah But we shall see. Yeah, I feel like that's gotta be an Avengers book. Or and ah and some event crossover series, yeah. yeah um All right, Chris, that's gonna do it for our comic segment, which means it's time to talk to Bill Morrison. Let's do it.
00:43:01
Speaker
Joining us for the program this week, we are very excited to welcome a new friend to the show. ah You may know him from his work at Bongo Comics, or you may have already backed the already ah twice over funded, 200% funded campaign for the complete adventures of Roswell, Little Green Man. Bill Morrison is here. Bill, welcome to the show. How are you? I'm doing great. Thank you guys for having me.
00:43:29
Speaker
Yeah, it is it is our pleasure. ah Like I said, there is a ah ah crowdfunding campaign going on at Zoop for a collection of the complete Roswell, which is very exciting. But if if you're okay with it, I have something else that I want to talk about right up front. Yeah, and anything and everything. I have she in my office, next to my desk as we speak,
00:43:57
Speaker
a recent purchase of mine that is a copy of ah Batman number 251,
00:44:07
Speaker
The Joker's Five-Way Revenge, hu but with professional wrestler Dan Housen on the cover. That's right. Drawn by one Bill Morrison. Yeah, that was that was amazing that I got to do that. I am just very curious as to how that came about.
00:44:28
Speaker
Well, there's a ah retailer here in Michigan. I live in Michigan now. um I live most of my adult life in Los Angeles or the LA area. But I grew up in Michigan and my wife and I moved back here in 2019. I met a retailer, a local retailer who wanted to do a retailer variant and he happens to be a friend of Danhausen's. And so I guess he talked to Danhausen and he said,
00:44:58
Speaker
Would you be like, if I pitched this to DC, would you be up for doing a variant cover? Danhausen is a big comics fan. So he said, yeah, absolutely. So I guess I, I think my friend contacted DC or I think they sent out a list of like older issues that are available to do a like a reprint.
00:45:22
Speaker
with ah with a variant cover. So he looked at what was available, and Batman 251 was on there. And he got the idea. It was was not my idea. He said, wow, how cool would it be to put Danhausen in place of the Joker on this cover, but still have Batman strapped to the playing card? He pitched that to DC, and they said, OK. ah Which kind of amazes me, because I mean,
00:45:52
Speaker
and The Joker is kind of the point of that whole story, right? a it's ah It's a major big Joker story. So if you buy the issue, you're getting that classic story drawn by Neil Adams and ah written by Denny O'Neill. So Danhausen is nowhere inside the book, but he's right there on the cover instead of Joker. This is probably the fourth or fifth version of this story that I own. So it is It is, ah I've seen the Joker enough. I would love to see more Dan Housen. Have you had the opportunity to meet Dan Housen, Bill? Yeah, a couple of times. Yeah? Yeah. He's very nice, very evil.
00:46:38
Speaker
um No, really nice guy. You know, I don't don't know him well, but we've met at a couple of comic conventions. And he he just seems really cool. And he's got a cool wife. He's also a local guy. I think he got his start here in Detroit, either Detroit or Canada. And I'm not sure where he is now. I think he might be living in Canada. But um you know what a success story. And I love the fact that like I've never really been into wrestling because
00:47:13
Speaker
i don't I'm not really into doughy guys in Speedos and boots. now well ah We are.
00:47:24
Speaker
i think I think in the present day, wrestlers tend to be more ripped. like they They spend more time in the gym. yeah like When I was a kid, wrestlers were just big guys. i mean They were big. They weren't always very fit. yeah and I did not want to see those guys in Speedos. and and calf boots, you know but um I love the fact that he looks like he could be a member of KISS. I mean, i mean he's like he looks like a rock and roll guy. He's got obviously the makeup, but he's wiry and he's you know he's very fit and he just looks cool. you know a The kind of guy that
00:48:05
Speaker
would make me want to watch wrestling just because he looks so cool. And and and he's very entertaining as well. is look Great wrestling comedy ah there. So you might appreciate that as well. Yeah. It seems like he doesn't take himself super seriously. He has fun with it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I take him pretty seriously when he gets out that jar of teeth. and that's That I take very seriously. I didn't know about that.
00:48:35
Speaker
Like when I first met him and then I saw something about the teeth and I was like, oh, that's kind of creepy. Well, it was so it was so fun because I was ah here in Minneapolis. There was a ah wrestling show that I was at and they had, you know, Dan Housins at his merch table. And I ah love that guy. i I'm a fan of his stuff on TV. I'm also a huge Batman guy. I'm a huge comics guy. So I go over. I see that he has a comic on his on his table like he's at a con.
00:49:04
Speaker
ah And when I picked it up, I was like, oh, this is Bill Morrison, who did all the Simpsons comics. And then we got like immediately after we got ah Jordan from Zoom, got in touch with us about interviewing you. And I was like, yes, because I have questions.
00:49:21
Speaker
oh But I feel like that's, to me, and I don't know if you've had this experience as the creator, but to me, that was such an interesting convergence of three things that I like, that I think kind of easily go together, but that I had never like, I would have never combined you, Dan Housen, and a classic Batman story like in in my head. Yeah, I mean, it's it's not it's not something that is based on a formula or
00:50:01
Speaker
you know, anything that you would naturally think of. It's like, oh yeah, put these three things together. um But really that was, my my friend, the retailer, his name is Lauren Becker. Those are just three of his passions. He likes my art. He loves Batman like I do. And especially loves that issue. I mean, that's one of my favorite Batman covers ever. And he's friends with and loves Danhausen. So,
00:50:29
Speaker
You know, it's one of those things, like my Roswell book, people ask me like, how did you come up with these characters that don't seem to go together, but they work? I'm like, it's just, every you know, just stuff that I wanted to draw. You know, everything everything in Roswell is based on things I like to draw. So, you know, whether they go together or not, now they do. Is that...
00:50:58
Speaker
the comics project that's always been kind of your passion projects, Roswell? Well, since since I did it, yeah, since I did it initially, before I did Roswell, I didn't know that I wanted to create my own comic.
00:51:16
Speaker
And that really came from Matt Groening. He gave me the offer early on when we started Bongo. And he said to me and a couple of other of the principal people, he said, if any of you come up with an idea for a creator-owned book that you want to do, and if it's something that kind of fits the vibe but of Bongo, then let me know. Pitch it to me, and if it seems right, we'll do it. And I sat on that for like two or three years because I just i
00:51:47
Speaker
I never like, as far as, like when I was growing up and had ambitions to be a comic artist and to be an illustrator, I always thought I would be an artist. I never really dreamed I would be a writer. And then once I started writing, I still never, you know, ah my, it's like my boundary that I set for myself was, okay, you'll write other people's you know stories based on other people's creations. It didn't really occur to me to do my own thing. So it was Matt Groening giving me the offer and me realizing this is really generous. um It took that thing kind of sitting in the back of my head for three years to make me actually do it. you know because
00:52:41
Speaker
Every so often, I would just think about it and I would think, man, you're blowing it. you're you know Matt gave you a great opportunity here and you're you're squandering it. So I kind of forced myself to come up with something and then once I did, it it started taking shape and and I started getting more comfortable with the idea of creating my own characters and you know universe building and all that kind of stuff.
00:53:09
Speaker
That is fascinating to me that you were more or less just resigned to working on characters and projects created by other people. Because you were ah you were an illustrator for Disney, right? Yeah, I didn't actually work for Disney. I worked for a studio that contracted with Disney. OK. But yeah, i did I did a lot of Disney movie posters um for several years. and And then later I did some of the Disney fine art, you know, the gallery art kind of stuff, limited edition prints and that sort of thing. So your trajectory into comics is so different from so many comics creators because
00:53:58
Speaker
I feel like people we talk to on this show all the time and and Chris and myself and our friends, we all grew up just drawing comics and and and coming up with our own characters and saying like, this is what we want to do or or we can't help it. We can't help doing this because we love this medium so much, but it sounds like you arrived at comics from a totally different
00:54:25
Speaker
I did but I was like you I wanted to be a comic artist when I was a kid and all the way up through art school you know that was what I thought my trajectory was but when I was coming up because I'm older than you guys um comics weren't comic publishers weren't everywhere they weren't in California they weren't in Chicago or different cities they were in New York and and i grew up in an era where every everything i watched every movie every tv show that took place in new york city convinced me that i would die if i went to new york because you know it was martin's corsese films and it was like every 70s cop show that was
00:55:17
Speaker
ah that took place in New York. You know, it was all about crime and danger. And I just had this idea that, God, if I go to New York, I'm just not gonna survive. So I resisted that, even though I continued throughout art school to build a portfolio that was largely comic art. And then I had this teacher who um he had a class in airbrush illustration.
00:55:45
Speaker
And this teacher really turned me on to what was happening in California. So there you know there was like this airbrush art revolution happening out there. And you saw it on album covers and movie posters and all kinds of stuff. I just went, well, that's for me. you know My wife is an actor. So we could either go to New York or LA. And I thought, you know, LA is going to be easier and warmer.
00:56:15
Speaker
And so so I started pushing my portfolio in that direction. And that's what landed me my first job in California, in Hollywood. And then that led to the Disney stuff. And and at that point, I really didn't think I would ever get into comics. I kind of thought that was a dream that had sailed away. I didn't think it was in my future. But Then I got involved with Matt Groening and The Simpsons and it turned out that Matt, when he made his deal with Fox, he retained all the publishing rights because his dream was to someday start a comic book company. And so we started I started working with him on Simpsons book projects because those were I was already doing merchandise art and advertising for The Simpsons.
00:57:08
Speaker
But he had these own these um book projects that he was generating on his on his own. So I got involved with those, and that led to a magazine called Simpsons Illustrated, which is where we did the first Simpsons comics. And that's how I actually got to do my first comic strip. And it was in the first issue of Simpsons Illustrated. It was Krusty the Clown. it was It was about eight panels.
00:57:38
Speaker
So it was kind of like a Sunday newspaper strip or, you know, the equivalent of that. Every issue we expanded the comic section. It was me and Stephen Cindy Vance and Matt. We were basically creating the material for the magazine, but the magazine had, you know, articles and games and puzzles and things that, um, Welsh, Welsh publishing was the publisher and they had their own editor and that editor was generating you know the articles and some of the other things, but Steve and Cindy were generating the comics. So Steve was writing, he was editing. I think he must have written the first strip, the Krusty the Clown strip. And I had such a good time drawing that, and it was such a fulfillment of that childhood dream that I called him and I said, hey, you know I had a great time doing that strip, so
00:58:36
Speaker
for issue two, if you've got another script, I'd love to do it." And he said, well, we're really behind on the second issue and everybody's scrambling and nobody's had time to write anything. So if you want to write something, then you can also draw it. And I kind of casually said, oh, okay, that sounds great. And I hung up the phone and I just went, uh-oh. I just agreed to write a comic, which I've never done before.
00:59:07
Speaker
And, uh, you know, after the panic subsided, I thought, well, how do I, you know, how do I come up with a, with a story? And it wasn't like I had to write a whole issue. It was just like a one pager. So I thought, you know, what's something funny that happened to me when I was a kid? Because maybe I can take that and just transplant, you know, Bart, you know, just turn me into Bart and turn my dad into Homer or whatever. And that's what I did. So I wrote my first script and drew it and then um Steve thought it was fine. And I think Matt rewrote the punch line to make it a little funnier, but otherwise it was good. And he said, okay, do one for issue three and then four and five. And then we did an annual for the first year. That was a 3d issue.
01:00:04
Speaker
So we continued expanding the comics section throughout the second year, and it got to be the the thing that we were all having the most fun with. So when it came time to do the annual, the second year annual, somebody suggested, why don't we just make it all comics? We'll just do an all comics issue. And then they came up with the idea of making it comic book size and even changing the title so it wasn't Simpsons Illustrated,
01:00:35
Speaker
you know, but it was, it had more of a comic book title. So they came up with, I think Matt and Steve came up with Simpsons comics and stories as an homage to Karl Barks. And that was the first Simpsons comic book. And that came out, I wrote a full story in that one and I drew the bulk of the issue. I think there was one short story that um somebody else drew.
01:01:02
Speaker
But that was what created Bongo. That led to Bongo because it gave Matt the confidence that there was an appetite for Simpsons Comics. A year later, or less than a year later, we were doing Simpsons comic books with Bongo. I've got two thoughts about that, Bill. One is that my broken and pessimistic mind has turned this very nice opportunity that Matt Groening gave you of like, yeah, if you've got a comic that fits, we'll publish it and turned it into him being like, yeah, all you got to do is create a create a comic. boy That's all you got to do worked for me. Well, there might be some truth to that. Because I mean, I think Matt,
01:01:50
Speaker
i don't know I don't know if Matt knew that I was up to the task, but there was something about his confidence in the way he presented that to me that made me think I could probably do this. you know If I sat down and thought about it hard enough, I could probably come up with an idea. So even though it took me a couple of years, it didn't seem outside the realm of possibility that this was something I might be able to pull off.
01:02:19
Speaker
I do love that because, yeah, like, he should be confident. If you create something that changes pop culture as we know it, then yeah, you know what? you you you should tell everybody to do it. Yeah, it's like, if I can do it, why couldn't anyone else do it? Finding out that he retained the publishing rights and that that was all, you know, such a ah small group of people that that he was involved with directly. That makes so much sense because I remember reading those comics when they came out and that was that was the early 90s. Yeah. So i would even the first year of Bongo.
01:02:59
Speaker
Yeah, so I was 11 or 12. And I remember picking those up. And even then being like, okay, these are better than like, the other, you know, comics tie ins to things that I like. Well, these actually feel like the thing in a way that that other tie ins don't. Well, last week, you know, we used to get lumped in with license books. um I remember Wizard magazine had an issue where they had an article all about licensed comics and they lumped us in. And that got me so upset because we were really more like a creator-owned comic. So even though Matt wasn't writing and drawing all the stories, he was the publisher. So everything we did was approved by him. We didn't have to get any approvals from Fox because he had all the rights.
01:03:55
Speaker
And so we didn't have somebody at Fox saying, you can't do this, you can't do that. Matt was the final word. And you know if he put his seal of approval on it, he's the creator. So why wouldn't the comics seem authentic? And you know and also, you know my my but I always consider job number one, to make the comics an extension of the TV show.
01:04:23
Speaker
So even though officially they might not be in continuity or in canon, I really tried to make them that way. And my idea was, you know, there's like 22, 23 episodes in a season and then the summer comes and it's nothing but reruns and all the Simpsons fans have to wait until September to get new Simpsons episodes.
01:04:48
Speaker
unless they know about Bongo Comics, and then they can get authentic Simpsons stories all throughout the summer. Bill, ah speaking of that, I know you eventually worked on character designs and other things for the later shows, Futurama and Disenchantment. Yeah. but But having written so many Simpsons comics,
01:05:17
Speaker
been such a kind of key part of, you know, original Simpsons stories for so long. Did you ever think like, I'm gonna sit down and write an episode of the show, like, like,
01:05:33
Speaker
Did you ever want to just get in that writer's room and and be part of that too, be part of the show too? Or was it just comics as far as Simpsons goes? Weirdly, I never had that desire. And I think it was because I'd been in the writer's room when I was working on Futurama. So I knew what that was like. And um i just I just didn't feel like that was my thing. it's it's um you know It's a bunch of people pitching ideas, and if one of your ideas gets picked, you go off and write a script, but then everybody else takes a crack at it. yeah And they you know they add their own jokes, and you know it's the showrunner is the last word on what stays in and what goes out. And I always felt like, well, with comics, I can
01:06:26
Speaker
you know I can tell a story that I don't have to worry about somebody messing with, I guess. I mean i never really thought about it, but i think I think that was kind of my feeling. I just kind of felt like, no, I like it ah like it simple.
01:06:42
Speaker
i don't I don't like script by committee. you know I like script by one guy, one girl, and an editor, and that's it.
01:06:52
Speaker
I'm curious to know, like with regards to Roswell, because of the career that you've had, where you you have worked on Disney stuff, and you have worked on Simpson's stuff, and you have worked on comics covers with independent professional wrestler Dan Howson. When you are talking to people, and you you are trying to, I guess, pitch them on Roswell. like do you Do you try to like feel them out to see like what's gonna be the best avenue of attack? Like, oh, do you like the Little Mermaid? That's great. he here's If you like the little Little Mermaid, just check this out.
01:07:40
Speaker
Do you mean like if I was pitching it to somebody who I wanted to buy ah an issue and read it or or like a publisher? so i either i was I was just thinking of conversations I've had to have at cons, but yeah, like if you're if you're pitching it to ah a potential reader, let's say. i don't think i've ever I don't think I've ever like overtly pitched Roswell to anyone.
01:08:08
Speaker
But if people ask me about Roswell, then I ah kind of go off at the mouth about um what it is and what it's about and why they might like it. And I don't really have a good elevator pitch for Roswell i because ah the characters are like my kids, you know? So it's like if if somebody asked a parent about their kids,
01:08:35
Speaker
You know, so look at it this way. I'm like the parent who doesn't go out and spout off about his kids and how great they are and all that. But if somebody says, tell me about your kids, then I'm like off. I'm like, oh, well, you wouldn't believe they do this and they do that and their personalities like this. And they got into this predicament and this story and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I would recommend that all of our listeners try pitching your kids.
01:09:04
Speaker
people like Yeah, this is this is my daughter she's like Star Wars meets the Walking Dead yeah let me go over Elevator pitch on my daughter Well Bill ah to talk about Roswell for a second I I wanted to talk about the art style a little bit because I think people have seen so much of your Simpsons and related art that I think they they might assume that that is your natural art style. And Roswell definitely has a still like almost animated sort of look to it, but a different one, for sure. A kind of more mid century kind of look. Is is that
01:10:04
Speaker
sort sort of your more natural way of of drawing? Yeah, and I think it came out of um mainly because of the fact that I haven't done a lot of comic art that's in my own style, or or at least I hadn't up to the point of when I came up with Roswell. um I had to figure out what what should this look like.
01:10:31
Speaker
And I had, you know, fairly recently done a whole string of Disney posters. So I think there's a lot of Disney in that. um The way I draw Julian's face has a lot of Ariel Little Mermaid in it, you know. but But it's also deeper than that. It's just I started thinking about all my influences. you know I just thought about my comic influences, my illustration, my my newspaper, strip cartoon i influences, and they all kind of mixed together and went into it. you know so
01:11:09
Speaker
um And if you look at like the beginning, like the first issue of Roswell, it looks different from issue six because I was still experimenting and trying to figure out what it should really look like. So I think ultimately I wanted it to look like a comic that might've come out in 1947, maybe like a Dell comic that was a Disney tie-in or something like that. But ultimately, you know, it has to be its own thing and it's not going to it's not just gonna be I didn't really want it to be like a copy of anything, but I did want it to have that kind of a vibe, that mid-century animated vibe that was maybe like the comic version of an animated cartoon. I think that definitely comes across in the art, in the book. i ah Yeah, the the the sort of like pin up look,
01:12:03
Speaker
ah like, ah like There's kind of a Lois Lane sensibility as well. ah it It is a great style. And I think it's i think it looks really cool. i oh think People should should should grab the book. I hope they do. i'm I'm thrilled about how quickly we made our goal and exceeded it. And the the whole idea for me to do this came from years and years of going to comic conventions and going you know doing store signings. And almost every time I i do a signing, basically at least one person comes up to me and mentions Roswell and asks me, when is it coming back? Are you ever going to do any new issues? Is somebody else going to publish it?
01:13:00
Speaker
And that always sticks in my head, you know, just, wow, people still remember it and people seem to love it. You know, I should do something with this. It's kind of the same as when Matt first gave me that opportunity. It's like that nagging voice in the back of your head. It's like, come on, you're, you know, you're not getting any younger. You got to do something with this. And the idea of doing the crowdfunded book kind of, it was kind of like a,
01:13:30
Speaker
ah Convergence of events, you know, I mean one That I've got so many friends who are having success with crowdfunded books And so I'm looking at them going well, you know, it's working for them. Maybe I should give this a try but then also yeah Some people may not know this but bongo went out of business in 2018 and eighteen And a couple of years ago, I got an email from one of the lawyers who said, we are ah issuing a quick claim on Roswell. I had no idea what that was. So I said, is that a good thing or a bad thing? what what is Am I going to jail? What's going on? And they said, no, no, no, it's a good thing. It means we're giving you the rights to Roswell back. And I had always i had always had
01:14:23
Speaker
It was always create around. So I'd always had the right to do new stories and I could take it to another publisher. You know, I could do whatever I want in terms of new stuff, but I didn't have the rights to the Bongo material. So if I wanted to do a collection or if IDW or Dark Horse or another publisher wanted to, they would have to make a deal with Bongo.
01:14:53
Speaker
and pay a fee, a license fee, et cetera, et cetera. So that was always kind of sticky, but now they've given me the rights back so I can do whatever I want with the bongo material. And I have all the files. And so that was a game changer. That was like, oh, well, you know, maybe I can put out a book that's just everything that I've done to date and do that as a precursor to a new series. And, you know,
01:15:23
Speaker
use it as kind of a bellwether. So if it's successful, then that will give me the confidence to start doing new stories, maybe find a publisher or maybe continue with the crowdfunding model. I'm not sure. Well, now ah that you can put it back out, that means readers can get their hands on it. And another thing that readers can do is ask questions to the guests that we have right here on War Rocket Ajax. Matt, how exactly can they do go about that? Well, Chris, there are two places.
01:15:59
Speaker
Folks can go to ask questions here on the show. ah You can join our Discord, which is by invitation. ah But if you ask us for an invitation nicely, you can join the Discord and go over to the Listener Questions channel there to ask questions for our guest. Or you can follow us on BlueSky at warrocketajax.bsky.social and ask a question there. And ah Bill, our first question for you is going to come from TailsToEnrage.
01:16:28
Speaker
on our discord who wants to know Lisa Simpson threat or menace aren't those kind of those are kind of two very similar things that's true it's it's the it's a classic J Jonah Jameson question yeah yeah ahs true I like the name too um what was it tales to what Tilsu and Rage. Tilsu and Rage. That sounds like a fake comic we would do at Bongo. He yet does. Okay, Threat or Menace. I would say she's more of a threat because of her intelligence. So she's ah she's a threat to anyone who is um threatened by smart women, smart girls. um She's definitely a threat to Bart.
01:17:18
Speaker
For sure. Or at least an annoyance. Yeah, so I would i would go with threat over menace. i don't She may have episodes in her life where she's been menacing, but not too many. Wiki on our Discord wants to know how the, for lack of a better word, old timey sci-fi fiction that clearly influenced Futurama also influenced Roswell. i did I did Roswell before I started working on Futurama. I'm sure Matt was already thinking about Futurama, but it wasn't until I was probably about two years into Roswell that Matt came to me and asked me if I would help him
01:18:02
Speaker
start to do the visualization, the visual development for Futurama. So i I think there's definitely some Roswell influence in there because it's, you know, I mean, obviously I was sort of steeped in mid-century and earlier sci-fi at that point. So I was looking at Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon and you know, all that early 20th century sci-fi stuff. And that's what Matt was into too. You know, he was looking at pulp magazines and, you know, old science fiction paperbacks and all kinds of, you know, early, early stuff. So, so I think we were both kind of interested in the same sci-fi vibes. Although I think Matt was a lot more, my my focus was more narrow.
01:18:53
Speaker
You know, I, I was more looking at 50 sci-fi films hu and, and like I said, the book Rogers and like this early sci-fi comics and pulps, but Matt was more far afield. He was looking at everything. I went into his office one day and he had boxes of video tapes that he had rented from this really great video store that was in North Hollywood called Eddie Brandt's Saturday Matinee video.
01:19:23
Speaker
and they had everything, everything you could imagine. And what what but wasn't commercially available, they would record it off of television and you could they couldn't legally rent it to you. so So they would just make tapes that they would record off of TV at like one in the morning, um commercials and all. you know right they couldn't So they couldn't legally rent it to you.
01:19:51
Speaker
but They had they had like a list of all these films that they called loners. and so If you rented one video from them, you could get a loner. so There was all this stuff that you know probably to this day has still never been ah commercially available on video, but they had it. so Matt had this box and it was like full of video tapes, sci-fi video tapes, and another box that was full of paperbacks and pulps. and
01:20:22
Speaker
all kinds of stuff. and he was just He spent a couple of years just sort of educating himself on science fiction. you know Whatever it was that he wasn't already familiar with, he got familiar with it. so that he could like yeah like His vision was to do this sci-fi show that Anybody who loves sci-fi, no matter what aspect of it, there would be something in there for you. Dr. Cassino on our Discord says that his favorite bongo comics title was the much-missed Sergio Aragones Funnies. Oh, God, I love that book. How did you land ah Sergio Aragones for it? And do you have any stories about him? Sergio, we we all call him the the the real
01:21:10
Speaker
most interesting man in the world. He's like way more interesting than the Dos Equis guy. but Yeah, there's there's lots of Sergio stories. Basically, I became friends with Sergio through a group that he started in the late 70s in Los Angeles called CAPS. C-A-P-S. That stands for Comic Art Professional Society. and I became a member sometime in the 90s.
01:21:38
Speaker
ah Sergio was at every meeting. you know He would drive in from Ojai, California into Burbank, which was about an hour and a half. He would do that every week and um he just loved hanging out with other cartoonists. and It didn't matter if you were just beginning or if you were a seasoned old pro, he treated you exactly the same.
01:22:01
Speaker
And so we got to become friends. And I knew from our conversations that he was a huge Simpsons fan. So at one point when we were doing Trias of Horror and the kind of the early issues, a little backstory on Trias of Horror. So like when we started Bongo, our general mandate was to make the comics on model or you know to look as much like the show as possible.
01:22:32
Speaker
So um everything was drawn by certain hand-picked artists you know who could draw the characters on model. But I think it was in the fourth issue of Trias of Horror, i um I had met Jeff Darrow at a comic convention and we started talking about The Simpsons and I said, hey, would you ever like to do something for Bongo?
01:22:57
Speaker
And he's like, well, I don't really have a lot of time, but I'd love to do a pinup or something. And I said, tell you what, how about a pinup for Treehouse of Horror? So we've got an issue coming up, and you can do anything you want. And he said, yeah. And Jeff had come from an animation background, so he knew about putting things on model. And he said, send me model sheets, and you know I'll do something cool. i I'll keep it on model.
01:23:26
Speaker
And I said, you know what, Jeff? i think I think your fans would love to see how you do The Simpsons. So I said, don't worry so much about keeping it on model. And I was kind of going out on a limb by offering that to him. But I kind of figured, well, it's only a pinup. It's like one page. you know Nobody's going to care. So he actually did a two page a piece that had the Kang and Kudos race of aliens, you know the Rigelians, attacking downtown Springfield. and It's like this kind of aerial shot so you can see rooftops and there's stuff going on on all the rooftops and there's army helicopters.
01:24:11
Speaker
and you know just It's like you could look at these two pages for 10 minutes and there was almost a story there. you know You could just examine all the little things going on. And it was so great and Matt loved it so much. And he came into my office one day and he said, this is really cool. He said, hey, from now on, how about in Triass of Horror? Why don't we invite artists that we admire and have them just do their own take on The Simpsons?
01:24:45
Speaker
And I said, that would be great. Yeah, let's do it. So, you know, he only had two rules. One was the character still had to have bulgy eyeballs. And they also had to have over bites and no chins. So he said, other than that, they can do their own style. They can ink it however they want. That opened the door for me to invite a whole lot of other people to work on Triassa 4. So of course, knowing that Sergio loved the Simpsons, I invited Sergio.
01:25:14
Speaker
And he did a story, I think in issue five, that won an Eisner Award. And from that point on, I was always pestering him. And I was saying, hey, how about doing another Simpson story? And he was always too busy. One day, I was driving in to Bongo, and I had the radio on listening to news. And this news report came in about Mad Magazine.
01:25:44
Speaker
And it said, MAD is decreasing its frequency of publication from, I think it was monthly down to quarterly, or it might have been eight times a year down to quarterly, but in any case, I knew that Sergio was not going to be getting as much work as he was used to. So as soon as I got to Bongo, I called him and I said,
01:26:10
Speaker
First of all, I said, Sergio, I heard the news about Mad, and I could tell he was really depressed. And he said, yeah, I don't know what I'm going to do. You know, it's a lot of income lost. And I said, well, that leads me to my next question, which is, how would you like to do more regular work for Bongo? And he said, oh, señor, I would love it.
01:26:38
Speaker
And so we had lunch and we talked about like what he would want to do. And we had launched a Bart Simpson book. there was There was more like an all ages kind of book and it was shorter stories. So it wasn't just like one long story per issue. I said, how about you do something on a regular basis for Bart Simpson?
01:27:01
Speaker
So he started doing not only Bart stories, but he had a regular feature feature called Maggie's crib. And so every issue, it was like a silent, just a pantomime story with Maggie. And yeah That just led to us talking about, you know, what else do you want to do? And he said, well, you know, I've always wanted to do a book that was my own thing. He says, you know, I i know I have grew, but I do that with Mark Evanier and you know it's collaborative and it's, you know, it's one character. So we're, you know, we have to stick to grew and grew type stories, but I would love to do something that's more, you know, more of a collection of different things, more eclectic.
01:27:48
Speaker
And I said, well, give me a, you know, give me a pitch that I can take to Matt and I'll see if he wants to do it. So he put together a pitch and Matt's a huge Sergio fan. So it didn't really, ah pro he probably didn't even have to pitch it. You know, I probably just really needed to only go up to his office and say, Sergio wants to do a book. And Matt would have said done. Anyway, he said, you know, I want to have a, uh,
01:28:18
Speaker
an autobiographic story in every issue. And I want to have puzzle pages and games. And I want to have like an historical story. I want to have a bunch of one-pagers. And it all sounded so great to all of us. And so, you know, it was just a no-brainer. It was like, yeah, let's do it. So we did it. You guys got some great folks to do those Treehouse of Horror books.
01:28:46
Speaker
but Stansakai being doing multiple stories in those is Incredible. Yeah, I mean now now the Abrams comic arts is coming out with these great omnibus editions and they just premiered the third volume at San Diego Comic Con and It's great because people who never bought the comics when they first came out are discovering them and And they're going, holy crap, Bernie Wrightson did a Simpson story. Al Williamson, Gene Colan. I mean, it's like a who's who of the comic industry. And i I kind of feel like it was one of the best kept secrets for years, but now people are starting to really discover it. Absolutely. Absolutely.
01:29:35
Speaker
Bill, ah we could keep talking about this stuff for for hours and hours, but we are unfortunately out of time. we Before we let you go, um please tell our listeners where they can go to back ah Roswell and where else they can find you if you want to be found. Yeah, just go to Zoom. And if you go to my Facebook page, I'm posting kind of regularly about the campaign.
01:30:03
Speaker
So you can find one of my posts and there's a link. There's a link in my bio on Instagram. And my Instagram is at Atomic Battery, by the way. um My Facebook is just Bill Morrison. And um yeah, you can, there's all kinds of cool incentives. um I don't know if you really call them incentives because they're not it's The way Zoop has it set up, it's kind of like going to a grocery store and you can just kind of pick and choose what you want. So you can get the book and then you can just add on piece by piece whatever other things you want. And there's vintage Roswell t-shirts from Graffiti Designs.
01:30:48
Speaker
you know in the original packaging from way back in the 90s. And there's magnet sets, posters and prints, and original artwork. um You can get me to do head sketches or or torsos or full figures in the book. So there's all kinds of options, lots of fun stuff that you can pick up. So I hope people go and do that. And the other place you can find me is every Monday I have a feature on 13th Dimension, which is a website all about comics, and um there's there's a feature called Morrison Mondays, and it every week is, it's it's kind of focused on homages that I've done, because at Bongo I did a lot of, some some might call them cover swipes, but I call them tributes.
01:31:44
Speaker
but but So there's a lot of that, ah but every so often I do a new piece, like I just did a tribute to Julie Newmar for her birthday, which is tomorrow. And so you can go there and check that out and leave messages. And yeah, but that's that's a real fun thing to brighten up your Monday. Our guest has been Bill Morrison. ah Go get the Roswell Complete Collection on Zoom. Bill, thank you so much for joining us.
01:32:14
Speaker
Well, thank you guys for having me. This has been fun and I hope we can do it again someday.
01:32:22
Speaker
Thanks once again to Bill Morrison for joining us. This was a very good time. Uh, and I, uh, I hope everybody goes and reads Roswell. It's a very fun book. Absolutely. Go to Zoop and back that, uh, they Bill has, like you said, doubled his goal. So it's all gravy from here, baby.
01:32:41
Speaker
If you would like to get it in touch with us here on the show, send us an email. You can do that at our email address, which is war rocket podcast at gmail dot.com. That's where you can send every story, every list or recommendations for comics, catch up, or let us know if you want to sponsor the show or.
01:32:58
Speaker
get in touch about any old other thing. ah You can do that at that email address. You can also get in touch with us on Tumblr, warrocketpodcast.tumblr dot.com. We're on Blue Sky, warrockethx.bsky.social. And you can join our Discord ah by invitation and ask us for an invitation on any of those places I just mentioned or on our ah Patreon and we will get you one and you can join that community of War Rocket Ajax fans.
01:33:26
Speaker
Our website is warrockandajax.com and as every episode of the show we've ever done, warrockandwiki.com is the fan run repository of all the information you could need about this show, War Rock and Ajax. If you want to find me and my stuff, go to mattdwilson.net to find links to my comics, my books, my other podcasts, and my social medias. Chris, where can people find you? Everybody can find me by going to the-isp.com. That is my website. It's there for now.
01:33:54
Speaker
And it has links to everything that I do, or at least some of the stuff that I do, um including the podcasts that are active right now and books I've written. ah You can go there and check out all the comics that I have. And there's even a handful of them on there for free that you can download and read at your leisure ah that I hope you enjoy. ah But yeah, that's where everybody can find me, Matt.
01:34:21
Speaker
Thanks for listening everybody. ah We'll be back next week with another episode. And you should listen to that one too. Yeah, it's gonna be a fun one. Until then, don't forget Black Lives Matter. Trans rights are human rights. As are abortion rights. Drag is not a crime. Cops aren't your friends. But we love you. We love you.